For the first time yet this season there were big red juicy stalks of rhubarb for sale when I was doing the grocery shopping. Because blueberries were on sale, I ruled out baking a rhubarb-strawberry pie in favour of a blueberry pie and decided, since we were in the throes of a heatwave that ice-cold stewed rhubarb would really service us nicely for dessert a few days this week.

So I prepared the rhubarb and the first time I served it, my husband, though appreciating it well enough, said the taste was too 'strong' for him, though to me it seemed perfect. For a subsequent serving the following day I decided to make up a small amount of applesauce and cut the rhubarb with the applesauce, and it did the trick; he loved it. Apart from those very small seedless and extremely sweet watermelons, there's nothing that quite speaks of summer to me, as a complement for a summer night's dinner, as rhubarb.

Because of the heat and humidity it seems fairly appropriate to turn to cold salads for the occasional dinner, as well. And potato salad does as well as many other salads, so it has become a weekly staple. To enhance its taste I delight in raiding the garden to snip as much chives and parsley and as I can, to add to the potato salad. It's incorporated with chopped Vidalia onion and celery. I always place a tin of chive-and-mayonnaise-enhanced Sockeye salmon in a mound dipped into the middle of the salad, and such a meal would never be complete for my husband without the addition of several deviled eggs.

And that was what comprised our dinner last night. Just before seating ourselves for dinner we wandered out to the backyard to view the strangest cloud formations assembling over the house, wafting quickly overhead by the prevailing winds that had blown lustily all week throughout our days of plus-30-degrees and high humidity, relieved on occasion by rain events.

This time, when the rain arrived after the drumroll of thunder and explosive fireworks of lightning, the temperature began to drop fairly quickly, and we lost five degrees in a matter of minutes. Sleep last night was a much airier and lighter affair than it has been over the last week, with cool air wafting into the house for a much-appreciated change. And the forecast for today? Much, much cooler than previously, thank you very much.