Um.  I got nuthin’, except maybe a suggestion that the strawberries could be puréed for use on vanilla ice cream.

The trouble is...the mushy strawberries have a really funky flavor. The people at the farmer’s market said that the best thing to do is bring them home, immediately cut them up and soak in cool water for a while. Then refrigerate for a few hours before serving. Maybe they’re half cooking in the field. I dunno.

I bought some yesterday afternoon and this morning almost half of them were mushy. They’d been freshly picked yesterday morning. I didn’t even bother cutting the good ones up this morning. I just rinsed, dipped in sugar, and stuffed them in my mouth. It was a moment of taste bud heaven. I went back and got more this afternoon.

volunteered yesterday at the local thrift shop, every second person through the door was complaining about the heat.  I was at the point where I seriously contemplated slapping the next person to say it upside the head!! 

And today, even more are bitching.  And yes, it is hot and sudden....two days ago I was wearing sweatpants and sweatshirt and complaining about the rain and cold.....but I cannot complain. Tonight it is 94 and no air anywhere.  I.will.not.complain!! ;)
However, I will complain about the pollen, oh my..........I swear it is coming through the screens by the bucketful and with the humidity, to dust or vaccum is an exercise in futility.  All that happens is you move it from one place to another and make a worse mess.  It is disgusting.  This is when I sure wish we had an airconditioned house so I could close it up til the pollen season passed.  I was hoping all the rain last week would hve taken care of it.......and yeah, I believe in SC, the EB and tooth fairy......LOL

Oh, I’d rather be hot than freezing to death. I have truly reached that conclusion. I’ll bet a bunch of people will reach the same conclusion when they’re forking over $5 per gallon of heating oil this winter, too. The heat is uncomfortable, but it’s easier to cool off than it is to get warm. A little sweat probably never killed anyone. Teeth chattering and blue lips....well, that’s a whole different kind of misery. By the end of the week, it’ll be mid-70s again. That is perfect June weather. Everyone should be happy again. Plants, too.

I think our pollen season is mostly over. The worst of ours happened about two weeks ago. The streets ran yellow with it and my car had such a thick coating of it, you could hardly tell what color my car was. Sticky, icky stuff. All my tables had a fine coating of it. If it was there, it was in my rugs, too. Ick!

High temp for the month so far = 62 degrees.  Rainy and/or cloudy every day.

I’m not gloating.  It’s been about 10 degrees below normal, and it’s getting depressing.  Seattlites can deal with this sort of weather in March, April, even the beginning of May.  But it’s supposed to be getting better by now.

OTOH, I’ll happily take this (hell, much worse than this) over a 90/90 day.

Well, I’m not going to complain! Humidity or not, which really isn’t bothering me right now. we have kept the heavy shades down and the windows closed. It is very comfortable in the house. But of course I can’t move around to fast these day so I am sure that helps lol.
Now, as long as a certain someone stays away a couple more days until it cools off we will be fine. We have both quit smoking now and don’t need to open the windows, unless she is here.

just wandered by my living room window...there is not even a hint of breeze today--and yet, you cannot see the woods (seriously) at the end of our yard (and they are a ways off) for all the yellow pollen in the air.  I was shocked cause usually it takes a little breeze to stir it up.  I have one of those big cocktail ottomans in the family room (microfiber on top, shelf on the bottom)...has a serving tray sitting on top of it - I moved the tray this morning and you could see the place where the pollen did not land.

I feel for the people with allergies, cause this has to be unreal for them..........now if we could get a couple nights withheavy rain, it would wash most of it down and away.  Wishful thinking!!

N, I sympathize. After an interminable winter, we were consistently 10-15 degrees below normal for our entire spring and it wore thin really quickly. But yeah, the 90% humidity isn’t pleasant and that’s wearing really thin, too. Somewhere in the world, there is a nearly perfect climate. Isn’t there? I need to move there.

J, well, as we discussed, the heat and humidity are a different kind of uncomfortable. Not exactly pleasant, but a far cry from freezing for months on end. I’m wandering around now gazing at the ceiling, thinking about where to put the ceiling vents. ;)

Cyn, our air quality today is wretched. I can feel it. Most of the pollen is gone here, but there is still plenty of ugly stuff hanging heavy in the air. No breeze. Amazing that the ocean can’t huff and puff a little breeze on land. It’s just sitting out there being useless today.

During our spring pollen season, allergies around here were horrid. A couple of my friends were swollen and utterly miserable for three weeks. Worst spring they can remember. I hope this autumn isn’t as bad. That’s my allergy season.

Well, one more day of this and then the thunderstorms sweep through tomorrow afternoon to bring cooler temps and lower humidity. Looking forward to it! I hope it washes your pollen out of the air and away, too!

A sea breeze kicked in.  Temperatures dropped to 77° in a matter of minutes. Woot!

Somewhere in the world, there is a nearly perfect climate

Waves hand.

I have never been to Hawaii. It’s probably a good thing or I’d never want to leave. Just like Cyn. And then I’d devote the rest of my time plotting ways to get back there. But if I could live there...I’d like to have a nice little 250 sq ft hut somewhere near a waterfall. As if. Do you have icky bugs or snakes?

Well Kate, since I have to pay to take a suitcase anyway, you are more than welcome to hop in one of mine.....we are going back for 3 weeks either next month or August, no later than that though.  I cannot wait.  I am sure L’meister will have more to say on the subject, but nope, NO SNAKES.  As for icky bugs, well they do have cockroaches you could saddle and ride, but for whatever reasons they don’t bother me.....maybe cause they are so big you can see them.  And those little lizardy things that change colors (chameleons??) They do have those, but I am always so happy to be there, I kinda over look those things.....except the time one of those lizardy things was in my bedddddddd.  Another story for another time!!  And I have a flying cockroach story that is pretty funny too.

Your little hut by a waterfall would probably only set you back about a half million or so.......based on the real estate we looked at two years ago.  That is the downside!!

No indigenous snakes.  However, the other day some lady went into her bathroom in the morning and found a four-foot ball python curled around the throne.  It was a handsome son-of-a-gun, imported and freed somehow.

That would wake me right up.

(Oh wow.  Car just drove by, stereo blasting.  The song?  Janis Joplin singing “Mercedes Benz.")

Well the weather here has been more seasonal, thank God. I am just the opposite, I prefer a nice cool day. Even when I lived in Tahoe, where we had tons of snow, I loved the winters. Oh well, in a few weeks, or sooner I will be complaining too!

Annie, are you in Germany? Huh. The little flag software must be glitchy today.

I used to love winter. Back when I lived in a place that had snow. Real snow. Real soft snow all winter long. I like snow. Truly, I do. We used to get 200 inches of it. And it was lovely. But here it turns to ice almost as soon as if falls. I can walk on top of the “snow” with a full arm load of wood most of the winter. Ice, ice, ice, ice, ice, and more ice. All the way through. All winter long. I hate ice. It makes just walking to the mail box a treacherous event. Water freezes under the shingles and causes leaks. At times I’ve even had to run heat cables through my gutters so the ice formations don’t back up under the facia board. And it’s the best glue ever devised. It freezes my woodpile solid and my trash barrels to the ground.  I spend most of my winter chopping ice. With a fricken hatchet. I can tolerate the cold if there’s an up side to it. But with the insults of ice, ice, ice, ice, ice, ice and more ice, winter is just a constant battle for 6 or 7 months out of the year. I can’t even express how utterly and completely sick of it I still am. It takes a few months of heat to make the onset of winter at least interesting. Initially. And I’m not a real fan of extreme heat, but I happily remind myself that I don’t have to chop ice today or wear 15 layers of clothes.

I heard someone tell a complainer today, that at least you do not have to shovel (or chop!) heat!! 

It was ever so nice to be at work today in an air conditioned office, but made it twice as hard to come back here though.  T-storms and possible tornados tonight and then seasonable and low humidity tomorrow.  Typical NE, don’t like it?  Stick around for a few minutes, it will change!! 

I just mostly want the pollen to go away.  My black cat is a yellow cat!!

Cyn, I can deal with skateboard sized cockroaches. In Florida they call them Palmetto bugs and they leave droppings the size of mouse droppings. Kind of creepy, but harmless. And the little lizard thingies (geckos?) are really cute and I like ‘em.

Way back in my youth, I had a friend who briefly lived on some Hawaiian island where few people seemed to reside. Is there such a thing anymore? He and his friends built themselves shelter with what nature provided and ate coconuts and whatever else they could find. They lived like that for several months. I even think clothing was rather optional. With a nearby waterfall and nearby beach. I can’t remember where it was, but it seemed like the sort of experience everyone should enjoy at least once in their lives. If that’s the sort of experience one would enjoy. I’ve always felt rather envious. Now, of course, I’m sure waterfall real estate commands premium prices and, well, I’ll probably still be here in my little house grousing about winter for the foreseeable future.

And, incidentally, we’ve erupted with a new batch of pollen. It was thick in the air today. I don’t know what kind it is this time, but there’s suddenly a terrific amount of it. Bleh.

LOL! Not in Germany today, but my ancestors were (on my fathers side) many years ago. Please dont tell me that the web has figured out how to genetically see us! OMG! BTW. Ice is bad. I have had my few, but memorable ice experiences....

Molokai has relatively few people.  Lanai has even fewer.

Sadly my clothing optional days are behind me (pun intended!) or should be anyway!!  But it has its appeal!!  Am in the process of planning my trip right now, going the end of July into August.  A few more years and I can go anytime, but since I am still working it has to be during the slow months (here).  I am blessed though as my dearest and best friend lives on Oahu and actually wants us to stay with them!!

Pollen seems to have left.  Maybe it drifted up to the coast during the storms the other night??  I left my car out last night and it did not have any on it this morning. My boss flew in from Chicago the othr night and she said the pilot announced to the passengers that what they were seeing was not fog, smog or yellow rain, it was simply pollen which is how bad it was. 

My house is being powerwashed right now and so hopefully it is well and truly gone cause otherwise we will have spent a lot of money to be coated with it again.  Fingers crossed! 

BTW, I hardly ever say this, but today (now) it is just 65, bright sun, no wind and glorious.  Normally I would consider it cold, but today I will take it!! ;)

Yes, today is about as near perfect as NE weather can get. We’re holding steady at 77° and 22% humidity. It’s so wonderful!!

Good luck on the house washing, Cyn. But I believe that’s sort of on the order of washing the car or hanging laundry out on the line to dry. Speaking of...I washed my car on Monday, for the first time since January. I thought the pollen was finished. You should see it today. Totally coated with yellow pollen again.

Last evening I noticed that there was a yellowish pall hanging above the tree line to the north. It looked like a thick cloud of pollution like you see hanging over major cities. I’ve never seen anything like that here before, so I’ll bet it was a heavy cloud of pollen.

Neither of those islands sounds familiar, Linkmeister, but it’s been so long since I heard the stories (and saw the photos) that I doubt if I’d remember the island’s name even if it was the right one. All I remember is that the photos looked like a slice of paradise and the stories backed up the visual impression.