Oh, how I loved this movie.

If you haven't seen it, it's a Masterpiece Theatre type mini series made in 1979. I'm glad I rented these because I was able to watch all the episodes very quickly and not have to wait. It's addictive!

I had a sense that someone was going to get killed, one of the two brothers that fell in love with Christina. It was the one she married. And then I jumped ahead and wondered if Christina was going to end up marrying Mark, the other brother, but she ended up (surprise!) with Dick. But Mark married Christina's best friend, Dorothy, so it all turned out well in the end.

The heat wave continues and I have yet to turn on the AC. For years, I've run around closing shutters, drapes and blinds on the east side and then doing the same to the south and west as the sun rose in the sky, but it never really made a huge difference. I've also been running fans, including 2 fans in the attic.

But today I discovered quite by accident that the house stayed remarkably cool (75 degrees) if I shut up all the windows and closed off the doors to both the sun room and the family room. The house was really quite cool today when i got home from work. Usually it would be stifling. I think I underestimated how much the heat from the family room filters into the rest of the house. Even though I often would close off the sun room, I think the family room would heat up in its own right because all that hot air would be in the garage and just rise up above, to the family room.

I finished mowing the front lawn tonight in the sweltering heat. We're supposed to get rain by sunrise.

Thus far, I've had one ripe cherry tomato. The snow peas are pretty well spent in this heat, and the same goes for the lettuce, though I am still eating the greens; I don't mind a bit of bitterness. Tiny stringbeans have formed. Soybeans growing more slowly and haven't flowered yet.

I found an unwanted visitor in the garden: woodchuck! There were 2 burrows I filled in last year; dumping used cat litter really works well. I shall have to repeat the treatment first thing tomorrow. The dastardly fellow has already shorn my autumn joy sedum.

I made some hypertufa pots 2 days ago and they're taking a while to dry in the garage. It will be 3 weeks to cure so by the time I plant, we'll be halfway through the season. But I've wanted to try making them for a long time and it's very easy. I had a false start using the wrong kind of cement mix. Can't wait to remove the mold; maybe in the morning they will be hard enough to do so.

I'm hoping I can make extras and sell them along with the perennials. I remember one woman selling them and she was charging $50 and up for them! Outrageous when the ingredients to make them are so cheap.