Joe's Pond Association members will be interested in the proposed bylaw changes that will be voted upon at the Annual Meeting a week from today, on July 7, at 10 a.m. at the JPA pavilion. The changes are posted on home page of the website. Click HERE to access that page. Any questions will be answered at the meeting before the vote.

We are heading into a week-long heatwave. My weather station is registering 86.8F with a very light NNE breeze. That's in the shade. In the sun, it must be well over 100F. Even with the insulating blind down here in my office, I can feel the heat radiating from the window. This time of day the sun beats in on this south-facing window directly, so it can get very warm. Nice in the winter, except the sun is so low on the horizon it dips behind the hillside by mid-afternoon. It's a different story this time of year. We have overhead fans that will get a good workout in the next few days. We keep the house pretty much closed during the hottest weather. It stays pretty cool; as the sun goes down, we open things up and gather in as much cool night air as we can during the night - and close up again as soon as the sun comes up in the morning. That is our air conditioning.

I put my palm plants outside on the deck this morning. I don't know how they will fare, but the avacado tree I put out a couple of weeks ago is loving it. My Norfolk pine didn't like being outside one bit, so I had to bring that back in. I may have had it where it got too much sun - too soon after being inside all winter. They are all big, heavy plants, so I don't like to move them around a lot. The ones outside will probably get a good drenching tonight, and that may be good for them.

I have two hoya plants. One is in a pot and is probably fifty years old, more or less. It used to flower sometimes, when the universe was perfectly aligned, but hasn't flowered for at least a decade. I took a piece of it off and stuck it in oasis in a small container with just water, and it blooms regularly. Go figure. This spring it has had at least three blooms appear. I think the flowers are beautiful, but I do not care for the smell. It's pretty overpowering.