HOT, Hot, hot

"Can you believe she brought the camera AGAIN?"

We've moved in the midst of a drought. And a heat wave. Roanoke hit or broke 15 records for heat in August, both in daily highs and highest nighttime lows. We have yet to see a day with a high "only" in the 60s. When it's really hot, we have a sulphur smell to our well water, I think it has to do with the iron levels in the soil, I don't remember. More often than not, we still run the A/C at night. This week, we continue to set record highs in the upper 80s-90 temps.

In looking back at our Colorado pictures, we frequently had our first snows in October. The first freeze was last night. In Virginia, I'm still wearing shorts (at least at home, haha) and tank tops. I'm loving this. Robert doesn't do so well with the heat.


Holly and I continue to take our evening walks, although we sometimes eat dinner too late to get outside before it's dark. But most of the trees still haven't made a drastic change.


We often walk with our new friends--two neighborhood dogs. (I was hoping to get some good pics, but the dogs seem camera shy.) Maggie is medium sized, black and white. She became our friend first, coming down her driveway to meet us, eventually sticking with us for a bit. The other dog was a little scarier, weird looking, with a big fat neck and long legs. His bark sounds like an elephant seal. I think his name is Uba; Trevor calls him "Lumpy," a good fit. Lumpy's more reserved, but Lumpy and Maggie have both walked all the way down the street and back with us. We look forward to their company now.

Lumpy doesn't look as scary in photos.

These pictures are from the other night. It doesn't look anything like fall. And you can't beat the scenery.

I love the garden here.


Some of the houses are visible from the street.

And some aren't.

We walk with the neighbor's dogs when we can. I'd worry too much about bringing my own dog, he's a bit hyper and doesn't listen well.


I enjoy walking with Holly, and I treasure this time with just the two of us. Trevor wants to get in on this too, and if I can get back to my regular wake-up schedule, he and I will start walking together in the mornings. We can take advantage of the weather.

Back home again.

And the heat goes on.