We're moving through such a prolonged heat wave, with no relief of precipitation in sight at all that roses, past their bloom are simply drying as they are, in full bloom, just as though some mysterious hand has sprinkled a magic drying dust upon them.  Monarda has followed suit, something I've never seen before.

And on these truly heat-exhausting days, my husband decided to begin painting the front of the house.   First came an inspection of all the wood surrounds, and then the necessity to replace some of the mouldings, so he cut mouldings in the workshop and installed them, replacing those that had rotted.  Then came the dirty, exhaustive work of scraping down all the old paint off to the bare wood, and following that, sanding it all to a nice, smooth finish.

And then came the application of the undercoat paint.  All of this, of course, took a succession of days when he would clamber up a long ladder, hoisting another smaller ladder with him, to the lower garage-roof of the house to enable him to reach those front windows.  Well enough for him that once the very early morning hours have passed the sun no longer glares directly down on the front of the house.

After the base coat came the first of the finishing coats of paint.  Dark green, we have decided, this time.  A sea change from the ivory-coloured paint we have used over the past two decades.  A change that pleases us; it makes the finished product look somehow more substantial, neater, well defined.  And it matches the dark green of the storm door that we had installed at the front door.

A break today; he has decided to wait a bit for cooler weather to come in, since today will top 35 degrees.  We note that there are plants in stress in the gardens, and hope that rain will eventuate.  The potential for rain the coming Sunday and Monday has moved from an earlier-predicted 60% to 40%.