The heat feels extreme, especially after how mild and rainy the summer has been. We’re still getting afternoon showers, but they’re short and the heat builds all day until their arrival. By afternoon, it’s cooler outside our house than inside. We tried to get most of our work done in the early part of the day—baking bread, dusting shelves, and preparing for a new week, the first full week of school.

In the late afternoon, we met our friends at our creek spot for a picnic. When we first moved here, we always had the spot to ourselves. Now, it’s a shock to show up and find no one else parked there. But the water rushes and drowns out sound so that there’s an element of solitude still. The kids played on rocks and we drank white wine until it was time to go home—a school night!