Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Heat and respite

What a relief. I've just had to close the window because the breeze was too chilly for me in my sleeveless nightie. 

How have you found the heat? 

I hated it.

Dave loved it. He was outside most of the day - early on in the sunshine on his 50km bike ride. Later, sitting in the shade with his feet in a plastic box of cold water, reading Lytton Strachey's Cardinal Manning. Dave comes alive in the heat. (What am I saying? He's the most alive person I know and only shrinks into the background in social situations.)  

I, meanwhile, got up early to drive a friend to hospital, then went for an early ride on the Trail and then came back to the north end of the sitting room (south window shut and curtains closed) to paint for the rest of the day.

This is what I was working on and at teatime thought I'd finished




but now I've posted it on Instagram I realise that the left hand side foreground tree leaves need to be slightly darker. 

Dave kept coming in and saying 'Come outside and experience it!' and I kept retorting 'I know what it's like! Hateful! And shut the door! I'm trying to keep out the heat!' Yes, I do mean those four exclamation marks.

Today Dave went out early and is out all morning so I've been lying in bed late, relishing the quiet, and gripped by this:



It's about death and dying. It's written by a palliative care consultant and is educative, challenging and utterly fascinating. It's such a relief to find a book I don't want to chuck in after 28 pages.

Have you heard of this reading rule suggested by someone called Nancy Pearl?

When you are 51 years of age or older, subtract your age from 100, and the resulting number (which, of course, gets smaller every year) is the number of pages you should read before you can guiltlessly give up on a book. As the saying goes, "Age has its privileges."

Now I'm going to pick some sweet peas, then make a coffee and I'm going back to bed with my book. There have to be some perks of being ancient, and freedom to do this is one of them. Friday and Saturday will be full on: Friday cooking for the refugee day and finding flowers that have not wilted to decorate the lunch tables, and Saturday the day itself. 

Enjoy the breeze. I am.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Really like your new painting, cool, green & a bike!
I also like the reading rule. I've only recently started to allow myself to abandon books I'm not enjoying. It's a game changer!
The heat has been too much for me, I've mainly been lying in my hammock under the apple tree. Today, much more to my taste. Sally 🙂

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks, Sally.
Yes, today was a relief. I could not even bear to be outside in the shade yesterday,

Anonymous said...

The ongoing debate in our house was me: keep the curtains and windows shut when the temperature outside is warmer than inside and only open them when it when its cooler outside than in ( like they did in Tenerife when we lived there with no aircon) vs Him: open all the windows in the hope that there is a breeze that will waft through the house (bringing in even more heat is my contention) monday was my rule day and Tuesday his. Outside our house at the front was 45 C on Tuesday afternoon and over 30C in the back in the shade ! I lived next to an electric fan and wilted both days. By Wednesday it was back to sox and cardigan on and feeling chilly in 23C 🙄🤷‍♀️ Tuesday morning was our weekly zoom sewing class when it was 33C in my sewing room, did more chatting than sewing.

I love your painting. Keep showing us your work it is very inspiring.

All the best for your Refugee hospitality day - hope it all goes well.

Jenetta

Sue Hepworth said...

Thank you for your good wishes and comps, Jenetta.

Dave had all the windows open on Monday but was happy on Tuesday to have those in specific rooms closed, with curtains drawn.

Was Austin enjoying the heat, like Dave?

Anonymous said...

No Austin dislikes heat often opening doors and windows, and he loves windy places, whereas I often feel the cold and welcome moderately warm weather - last weeks was just too much even for me though.