Those Lazy Days of Summer

I want this open!  Now!

When the weather gets warm, we open the windows around here.  There's usually a cross-breeze, and between that and the ceiling fans, we are quite comfortable.

This is opposed to when it gets REALLY warm and we batten down the hatches and turn on the air conditioning!

But, most days, Jack and I are content to hang out with the windows open.

My Sweet Jack posing for the camera

Jack's favorite place is the floor length window next to our front door.  He is perfectly happy to hang out there nearly all day long.

It's a good place to watch for any commotion in the courtyard where we live, and it's a place Jack's friends can drop by and say "Hi".  And they do.  Honest.  He has a little stripey cat friend who visits regularly, and the other night, around 2 a.m., a beautiful white cat came by.  What did my boy do?  Jack responded by pulling all of his toys closer to the window for them to see.  He wanted to play!

What a sweet little boy I have.

Jack also has winged friends.  The humming birds do very low fly-bys to say Hi sometimes.

They really do.

They come for the feeder my neighbor has next door, and then they fly low past our windows to say Hi to Jack.  Sometimes they just hover in the air and peek in at him. They are quite tame and will even come close  to greet me when I stand on the porch.

Bite that toe!  And Bite Me, you birds of the teasing variety!

Jack tries to ignore them when they tease him.  He doesn't let them bother him.  He is very good-natured.

Jack and his mom's toes

But mostly Jack likes to hang out with his mom.  Here he is using mom's foot as his pillow.  He is a loving and kind little kitty boy.

We're having a nice, relaxed, summer.  Well... we were until the real heat set in!

Beautiful blooms on the trees in the hot sun.

Since the above photos were taken, this summer has become inordinately hot in our area - and I know it's been a tough summer in places throughout the United States.

Temperatures here in Southern California have soared above 100 degrees F, with so many days above 100 degrees we have broken all kinds of records for consecutive days of miserably HOT, icky weather.

I'm not a warm weather person.

Can you tell?

Here, in the Los Angeles area, we have a Mediterranean climate.  It's usually pleasantly warm the year round, and it seldom rains.

Recent high, record-breaking temperatures, however, have left me longing for a good rain storm to cool things off.  We've been getting rain and thunder storms in the desert and mountain areas surrounding us, but it never seems to rain here in the basin.

So, last night I hear from friends in Phoenix that they are having torrential rains with thunder and lightening.  Then our weather report comes on and I hear that the same system is bringing some rain to us up from Baja, California.  But when I wake up this morning, there is nothing: the ground is dry, there are few clouds in the sky, and you could just curl up and die from the extreme humidity.

Anyone available to do a rain dance for me?

Thank goodness for air conditioning.