A quiet week in the garden mostly because it has been so gosh darn hot and humid! Even the Dashwoods were panting. None of us like the heat very much. Well, except the weeds. And the beans. And the zucchini. And…

The green beans are ready to begin picking! I have green green beans called Masai and some red green beans called Red Swan. There are some yellow wax out there too somewhere but I don’t remember where I planted them and I haven’t found them yet! It isn’t like they’ve gotten lost, they just don’t have beans on them yet so I can’t tell them from the other varieties that don’t yet have beans on them either.

We have a whole bunch of different kinds of pole beans growing too, none of which I can remember what they are either. Well, I do remember the ones we planted with the sunflowers supposedly make a great baked bean so I don’t have to worry about getting in there and picking them while they are small.

Since we ended up with extra tomato cages this year, I decided to try a little experiment I turned a few of them upside down and used them to grow one variety of my pole beans. It’s worked out really well except the beans are now taller than the ends of the cages and are reaching out towards each other and starting to wrap themselves in a bean-y knot. I didn’t expect them to grow that tall since in the past my pole beans have never gotten over a third of a meter in height, the stumpy things. I guess I put them in a good spot this year and they are happy!

It is officially zucchini season! We are getting zucchini every couple of days. So far we have been able to keep up with eating them fresh but I think we are about to reach overload and will soon be making them up into relish and bread and pickles.

I went out for a long bike ride yesterday, more race course reconnaissance. I found some hills! Nothing especially steep, just long and steady climbing. It was fun at first but then the day got hot and humid and I found myself out in the middle of nowhere with not a speck of shade. And then I got a tire puncture. And then I almost ran out of water and was saved by a lonely gas station. And then I got another puncture. And then I almost ran out of water again and was saved by another gas station. I was feeling so poorly at that point – nauseous and unable to eat which is not good – that I wanted to crawl into the freezer with the bags of ice. Instead I bought a bottle of water but wasn’t paying attention and got one that was flavored. Yuck! I texted Bookman “bought more water got flavored by accident blech” Except my phone changed “blech” to “bleach” and Bookman was confused and concerned!

I had to stop frequently just to get out of the sun for a bit. Finally, after 115 miles/185 km I pulled over at a park that had a shaded picnic area and a drinking fountain. I sat in the shade for a little while, my head pounding, feeling miserable and sorry for myself. It was 5:00 p.m. by then and I was still about two hours riding from home. If only I had a car I could have been home in 30 minutes. WTF was I doing? This was not fun. I had sweated so much all my sunscreen was gone and I was getting burned. I felt sick. I had been honked at and yelled at and even barked at by jerks passing me in trucks. My allergies were raging. I was mentally spent.

Then Bookman called me. I’m getting off from work now, stay where you are, I will be there in 20 minutes. So I sat in the shade, wallowing in self pity, drinking warm water and dreaming of ice cream sundaes and chocolate milkshakes.

Bookman arrived and packed me and Astrid into the car. He turned up the air conditioner full blast. He got us home. I took a cool shower and began to feel human again. I had some easy on my stomach chia pudding. Soon after I brushed my teeth and crawled into bed. I managed to read until about 8:45 and then called it quits and went to sleep.

I feel much better today, still tired but not miserable. My big race is in two weeks. My legs can do the miles but I am having some mental struggles. I will have support during the race so I won’t have to worry about running out of water or sunscreen or other things. That will help a lot. When I decided to do this race I thought riding the miles would be the hardest part. Turns out that is the easy bit.