Summer Storms

It rained today! After last week's suffocating heat, today it hasn't gotten above 80 and we even had a thunder storm. It seems that Autumn will come...some time. What a relief to see cloudy skies after so much sun; variety really is the spice of life.

This late August storm caught us by surprise this morning. It was cloudy as we headed to the pool for our daily swim, but we didn't think anything of it until about 6 laps into it when it started to rain. We kept swimming, but when the storm was near enough to hear thunder, we got out of the water in a hurry! Today I only managed to get 800m in before the fear of electrocution forced us to leave. I'll go for a run this afternoon.

My garden is appreciative of this change in the weather, to be sure. Even my sun-loving tomatoes were beginning to tire of this heat. They have, however, continued to blossom, literally! There are a number of new flowers on my plants even if the ends of some of the older leaves are withering from the constant heat and sun, but so far I haven't seen any new fruit. What's there is still as green and hard as ever, but I have faith that it won't be long before I've got some red beauties on the vine.

My potatoes are no more. Yesterday I dug them up. What fun! If you've never harvested potatoes, it might just be about the most fun thing ever; it's like a treasure hunt! You start to break the ground around the roots of the plant, and little by little round yellow nuggets begin to surface. :) Next year I want to plant more just so I'll have more to harvest!

As you can see, they aren't huge, but a far better harvest this year than last! There are some decent potatoes in the group...along with the minis, cherry potatoes, as I call them. ;) I'm planning to make papas alinadas, those are boiled potatoes with aioli sauce--yum. My friend Antonio taught me to make my own aioli from milk, rather than egg! No salmonella for me, don't worry, Chris.

I love the smell of the world after rain!