The Temperature is Rising

The majority of this past weekend was spent relaxing and recovering from a long, hot week.  And of course preparing for another scorcher.  Besides enjoying my air conditioned bedroom, I also got out to explore the city a bit more.  Last weekend, I checked out the Waterloo Arts Festival to take in some local music, art, and a great afternoon with friends.  We also visited a local shop called Native Cleveland, it was really cool and I was able to pick up a few things to remember my summer in Ohio.  The rest of my evening was spent touring around the city and checking out all of the small neighborhoods, which really have their own unique character.  I was given the inside scoop on all of the good restaurants and night life spots to check out.  Plus, I got to spend more time at the lake and watch the sun beginning to go down.  The view was phenomenal, never to be forgotten.

Beautiful Lake Erie

Back to work again on Monday, and very thankful for the thunderstorm on Sunday night!  It's the first day in as long as I can remember that we didn't have to spend all morning watering.  Leslie and I spent the afternoon working with Bob in Gateway weeding the Buffalograss outside of the Glasshouse.  That was a toasty job considering we had the sun as well as the reflection off of the glass panels.  Next job was deadheading the roses.  Not only are roses a prickly job to work on, but even worse the roses are surrounded by blue spruce and juniper.  I think it's safe to say that I donated some blood to CBG this week!

The heat index and humidity continued to increase, but we kept at it.  Thankfully, Tuesday brought on some rain showers.  The clouds were one of the best sights that I've seen at the garden all summer!  Of course, we had just finished up the watering, blowing off sidewalks and skimming pools right as the wind and rain began making all of work pretty much worthless.  We attempted to venture back out, but once we saw lightning, Dragana and I snuck away to the library to get some research done for our internship projects.  It was a lovely afternoon.  Soon after the storm passed, the temperatures immediately rose back into the 90s.  It amazes me how quickly the weather changes here, especially the humidity levels. 

Thunderstorms approaching the garden

Our brave attempt at going into the storm!

Fourth of July was also this week, but I think that day deserves its own post!  It was one of the best that I can remember, and I even spent the whole day at work.  Hopefully everyone else had a fun, safe holiday, too.