"Monday Monday, it was all I hoped it would be..."

Whew! I'm glad to know that I've not been the only suffering in this weather, as well as the only one who's garden has gone down hill!  Granted I'm not suffering as bad as poor Dave here, so I probably have less excuse.

Still, can I please just blame the dog and the weather?  My little bitchy (well, she is) has been consistently waking me up at 5:30am for the past couple of weeks and usually I just get up and roll with the hour that she wakes me up at (which used to be a tolerable 6:15am-6:30am) but anytime prior to 6am (even 6 in the morning is pushing it...) is just plain insane to me.  So after a few exhausted pets from me, she starts scratching me like she's a mole and I'm a delicious bulb she wants and if I don't get up, the barking begins.  Then I yell, she whines and I finally get up after cursing up a storm.

That's when I feed her and attempt to creep into bed again, but invariably she starts up again and I get no more than an extra 15 minutes of rest more.  When I finally do really get up, I take my little time (because I'm annoyed at her) and clean up the kitchen, water some houseplants and stuff to dawdle a bit before taking her out since she runs on a 12 hour schedule, of food every 12 and walk every 12 and the later I take her out in the morning, the later in the evening too, which helps in this dagnabit hot weather.

Of course, this means that I've been getting up not only grumpy, but later than I like to get into the garden, and thus as it's warmer, I'm in no mood to garden for longer than a quick sprinkle of water on the potted plants to prevent them from dying.  Mondays and weekends are worst for waking up at a reasonable hour, because you just want to have fun and go to bed late.  I wish I was one of those lucky in the gene pool, super "no need to sleep" people, so that I could get my gardening done before it feels like high noon in the Sahara here.

But there appears to be hope!

Can it be? It really is!  TEMPERATURES BELOW 90 degrees F for a few days! (Then it hits above 90s again on Friday, go figure, but still, respite!)

Perhaps this is over excitement, but I might be able to get some real gardening done again!  Pull weeds! Oh joy! To eradicate weeds again!  Spread more mulch-y stuff, clean the sunroom and garden area up, mow the lawn!

Being able to do these things again will be thrilling, considering how far behind I feel the garden has been and how awful it's starting to become.  I am feeling very little hope for the vegetables this year.  The heat I think has also been preventing good fruit set and I just pulled off 6 little hornworms off some tomatillo seedlings I had potted up, pests that I might have been able to prevent and noticed their damage earlier if I was able to spend more time in the garden were it not for the heat.

I'd like to note that I'm that breed of morning gardener.  Morning are my time because it gets me up and at 'em, stretches my bones and gets my mind going.  Plus, it's usually the least hot and buggy time of the day for me, especially when I perpetually must wear boots, overalls, and long sleeves when I garden to prevent from getting bitten up and lumpy.  Even then, the buggers find my hands, wrists, neck and face to snack on if I'm out for more than 5 minutes.

Either way, I'm thrilled to have a few mornings below 70 degrees and will just settle to the thought that this summer's garden may be a wash and dream of fall.