You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Weather’ tag.
Rainin… Rainin.
Ok, maybe not NEVER… but can you give us just a few days of sun? Please, pretty please?
Is it annoying to complain about the weather? I know, last year I complained about the heat…
Perhaps it isn’t annoying but rather pointless? I mean, what can we actually do about it? Absolutely nothing. Which is why it’s so annoying!
Oh well, today I don’t care. It started raining Friday night, and hasn’t really stopped precipitating some sort of liquid. We’ve seen everything from torrential downpours to thick mist. I really. Am. Tired. Of the rain. The gloom. The cold, enveloping watery veil that seeps into every pore. Yuck.
It’s May, for f.’s sake! Where are my May flowers? Soaked in a puddle, that’s where—all my newly planted daisies and snapdragons are droopy and saturated saying “Enough! Show us some sun!”
I feel squidgy and sowish from not walking to work as I usually do. It’s weird to not walk my 4 miles round trip nearly every day. Walk in the rain!? No way. I’d get to work looking, and probably smelling, like a wet dog. The buses are full and soppy. All the people in there together, we look sad and smushed like marinating sardines. Lots of frowny-faces and frizzy hair.
And speaking of wet dogs, even Gordon doesn’t want to go outside. I tried to take him out last night before bed. It was pouring but he HAD to go out! He got to the top of the stoop and looked at me like “Are you f.ing kidding me?” and walked back to the door. I had to drag him by his collar down the stairs where he promptly peed and hurried back inside. Poor guy. Hasn’t had a decent walk in three days which means he’s extra ornery. I’m not joking, he actually gnawed open a carton of chicken stock, spilled it all over the floor, and lapped up whatever came out. We found the empty carton on the floor with tooth marks in it. Darn dog. He needs a good 10-mile run as much as we do.
Oooh poor us. Pity pity pity party. Boo hoo hoo. I know I sound like a whiny baby. I’m TRYING to find the good in this, I am.
For instance, everything now is so green. And so many shades of green I can’t even count them. It is beautiful. Also, the hot water bottle is perfect for rainy nights, and I do love using my hot water bottle. Hmm… what else. I do like the sound the rain makes when it hits the windows. It’s calming and nice. I haven’t had to water the plants outside, and I know when it DOES get sunny, they’ll do so well. AND, the lettuce I planted outside loves the cool and rain. We’ll have a nice harvest of greens this weekend. OHKAY… there are a few good things about the rain. I’m not so sad or jaded, just looking forward to some sun.
And, hey. I did make quite a fine soup yesterday for dinner—a hot cuppa soup IS the best remedy for a chilly day.
Here’s the recipe—I made it up as I went, but it was so easy. I call it:
Easy Veggie Soup with Pasta (deep. really creative.)
2 T olive oil
2 cups of grape tomatoes, halved
1 t minced garlic
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup frozen corn (you could use fresh veggies – I just didn’t have anything but carrots)
1 cup diced carrots (really any veggies you like, up to 3 cups)
1 carton or large can of veggie, chicken, or beef stock
1 small can of tomato sauce (not pasta sauce, plain tomato sauce – Hunts makes a good one)
1.5 to 2 cups water
salt, pepper, spices to taste (I used rosemary)
any pasta you like, boiled to al dente **tip! keep .5 cup of the pasta water after it has boiled and stir it into the soup – gives a rich taste to it!
Pour the olive oil into a large pot. Heat the oil and add the tomatoes and the garlic. Let them get mushy in there, about 5 minutes. Turn down the heat if the garlic gets too brown. Add the veggies and saute them until warm. Add the tomato sauce, the stock, and the water. Let simmer until the veggies are well cooked. Salt, pepper, and spice to taste. Cook your pasta, strain. Add .5 cup of the pasta water to the soup and let simmer a few more minutes. Put a few pastas in a dish and pour the soup over. Eat and be warm.
That’s it. Easy as soup.
If it’s raining where you are, I hope you stay very dry and that the sun comes out soon. If it doesn’t look like it’s going to clear up, I suppose you can hunker down, make some soup, and listen to the rain with a good book and a warm blanket.
If it’s sunny where you are, please send some our way!
I am sweating. Glowing. Dripping.
It’s too hot. And it’s not even hotter than yesterday I don’t think.
Weather.com says it’s 85, feels like 89. “Warm.” Yeah. No sh.t.
Even my fish are looking at me like, “Uhm… the water is WARM, Momma! Yeah, we’re cold-blooded but this is ridic!”
I don’t feel like eating. I don’t feel like cooking. I don’t even feel like watching TV. I don’t feel like doing much of anything but laying on the floor with Gordon, sprawled out, limbs not touching anything, cold washcloth on my forehead, wishing the heat away. Poor Gordon doesn’t feel like doing much of anything either… not even a bone will tempt him. Ice will though, he loves ice. We are lucky to have window-units to keep the place a bit cooler, but it still gets warm. I worry for those with no cool air or ventilation, or who are working in jobs that keep them outdoors or in hot areas. We saw a worker get pulled out of a construction site today with what appeared to be heat stroke–the paramedics came quickly but I hope he’s ok.
Today I read a terribly sad and beautifully written article from March 2009’s Washington Post about children being accidentally left in cars by absent-minded but deeply loving parents. On days like today I worry about children and pets and the elderly being transported in cars at all or even being left in their homes with no air conditioning or fans, and hope that their caregivers remember to check on them, to take them (babies/pets/elderly) out of their cars even for a quick errand, or to provide cool water and air when possible.
We haven’t had a good rain in weeks… maybe a month! In sharp contrast to last spring when we had record rains all of June and much of July. Now, where only last month the grass was green and lush, today everywhere it is brown and dry. The leaves on trees and plants hang sad and parched. The pavement stays warm long into the night and the water runs tepid out of the faucet.
Ok, enough for now. I’m going to give Gordo another round of ice cubes and maybe spray him down a bit with some water. Maybe spray me down a bit too. Mark is playing softball and I hope he is drinking enough water!! It will start to cool off and it’s always a few degrees cooler in Cambridge than it is in Belmont, though only a few miles away.
What are you doing to stay cool? Please be careful everyone!
And has been all night and day. We woke up to heavy rain. Gordon doesn’t REALLY like to go outside when it’s raining, even though he has to GO so badly! It’s funny especially when he whines and whines to go outside, and then when we actually take him and he gets soaked, he looks up with those sad eyes. And all I can say is “told you so silly dog!”
I actually love rainy days. Rainy days are perfect for getting things done. Or not getting things done. Either way, successful in my opinion.
Rainy days are good for bread making. They’re good for reading. Watching football (both kinds), movies or DVR’d recordings of favorite shows. They’re good for painting. For writing notes. Or for just sitting down and doing nothing. I plan to do a little bit of all those things today.
What do YOU like to do on rainy days?
And sorry we haven’t written in a while. Hopefully we’ll be able to update soon with all of the events of the past month and a half.
But today, I write only about one thing. Coldness. Being cold. Being frozen. And though I really want to have disdain for those of my friends who are either living in a warm climate (warm=50 degrees+ in winter) or who are vacationing in a warm climate today, because you’re warmer than I am and can probably see the sun… I will not. I will not let this blog post be whiny and sad.
I’m trying to be happy. And thankful. That I have a warm coat and a semi-warm office to sit in all day. So in hopes of warming up, I’ll think about the things I love about winter:
Snow. It’s pretty.
Ski socks.
Soup.
Hot Cocoa.
Snow people/angels/body parts (if you went to a Women’s College, you will remember these fondly, yes?)
Kids in snowsuits.
Mittens.
Pink Night Skies.
Being blinded by the sun/snow.
Scarves.
Knitting.
Fall is great, isn’t it? It’s fresh and crisp and smells nice, and the leaves start turning their leaves to remind us that winter is coming. In New England we get brilliant foliage in reds and oranges that make the mountains look like hot embers. In Wyoming the cottonwoods, aspens, and cedars turn a beautiful gold that shimmers in the autumnal sun.
I was walking today, as I do every day, down Massachusetts Avenue near my workplace, and saw this tree. I see it every day and it’s just a regular old maple tree growing on the street corner. But for the last few days its leaves have been turning red, and today, due to the cool light of the rainy cloudy weather, it was particularly vibrant. This isn’t a very good picture because I took it with my camera phone, and really doesn’t do the tree justice. But I had to share anyhow because it got me thinking about all of the things I particularly love about fall. My top ten (in no special order) are:
- apples
- harvest moons
- crisp air
- wearing socks again
- wearing sweaters again
- football
- new school supplies
- fall foliage
- misty mornings
- warm soups
What are yours?
le-petit-elephant.com 