Scorched Wake

I have to get up early to beat the heat. By 9:00AM it is pushing 100 degrees, hotter if you are standing in the direct sun. The water rationing isn't really bothering me as I had let my lawn die months ago. I still take the hose and bucket to keep a few islands of plants going. There is also the soaker hose that waters the garden. That garden is the green oasis in an otherwise tan and crunchy brown landscape.

The homeless kitty now sleeps in the center of the garden, trying to stay cool in the shade of the Sunchokes and pumpkin vines. If she catches an occasional bird too then there you go *cue Lion  King Circle of Life music.*

They predict 115 degrees today. I thought 107 was challenging. Even the ants are behaving differently. They seem to be everywhere desperately trying to get moisture from water trays under potted plants, the bird bath, swarming the compost heap and then vanishing back under ground in a few hours before critical burn.

I am wondering if it will be like the scene from the Chronicles of Riddick. A rising sun that scorches the landscape with flame and ash with nothing but charred rock and desolation in the dawn of it's scorched wake.

The local news anchor woman pounded the desk and said " Aw. come ON!" To the weather man as he announced the record breaking heat indexes. He cringed and continued on with his dire forecasts of sweltering with a chance of heat exhaustion.The Governor has declared Oklahoma an agriculture disaster from the drought.

Flowers bloom and become potpourri in the baking sunshine. Bees stay in their hives only leaving in short shifts to get water and return to cool the hive with their collective wing beats. Birds walk and pant; too hot to fly. Trees drop leaves as they go dormant for lack of water. The Cedars, ever green, shrink and their branches droop in an effort to  conserve what little moisture they can charm from the morning air.

I fill the bird bath twice daily for pity and have a mister hose near the house to give relief to my butterfly friends and birds. I close off parts of the house so the air conditioner doesn't have to work so hard. I drink iced tea like it is the fountain of youth.