basic physics says that warm air rises. All of us have been told this over and over again. In reality, it is something that you can easily believe if you live in a house with more than one floor.

I can literally feel the temperature increase as I go up the stairs toward my craft room with the ambient air around me transitioning from warm to hot as I turn the corner and climb those last four steps. 

Upstairs, the only room that is even mildly cool is the bathroom. It faces east and is overshadowed by trees. George is talking about cutting back some of the trees; probably a good idea since the branches are against the house and lying on the roof. Still, shade is important. The upstairs bedroom faces north, it has drapes. Normally you would think it would be cooler, but there was the small matter of shut window and door. The study? East and south facing windows and bright sun flooding the room. Hot comes to mind.

Then there is my craft room. Actually the largest of the three main rooms. From my desk I can look west across the SF bay or turn around and admire the redwoods along the southern edge of our property. I love the views and enjoy having a lot of light. Neither curtain rods nor drapes grace these windows. No one can see in, so I have never seen the point in obstructing the view. Last spring and summer I was working 2-3 long clinic days a week and it just wasn’t all that hot so I missed the full experience. 

This year? Not so much… According to WeatherUnderground which uses OAK as its reference point – it hit 97*F. Various other apps reported 93-95 locally. Even by mid-evening, reading the thermostats in the house, it was 78*F downstairs, 88*F upstairs in one room and 92*F in another. Tomorrow is predicted to be not as warm and even cooler for the rest of the week. The kids in El Sobrante reported 101*F in their backyard with the temp decreasing to 95*F by early evening. Nothing like having a home on a sunny hill and not being all that close to the Bay.

Fun?  Not so much.

Meanwhile, I managed to stitch some on the Tiny Modernist Zodiac. I am now down to the 800 stitches on the frame. I could do it in one day, but it is all these scattered 1-4 stitch little suckers which are just no joy….

I made significant progress on Aires (it is boring to look at right now as it is huge color blocks) so I thought I would finish with a pix of the three critters which form the spring panel of A Year in the Woods (Cottage Garden Samplings.)

and will get the next panel started toward the end of the week.