Buoyant with the notion that it was going to get cooler yesterday, I spent the late morning tackling some of the jobs I had been ‘leaving ’til after’. I heaved over water troughs and scrubbed the green out of them, refilling them with clear cold water and a little cider vinegar. I got the tractor out and cleaned the Shush Sisters’ Pigsty, scooping all the muck and straw into the tractor bucket. I picked and chopped everyones lunch. The animals lunch that is. I pulled down another few bales of hay, loaded up the wheelbarrow and fed the cows under the trees. I added a clip to my step pushing just a little harder. Starting job after job. Around the middle of the day it became apparent that it was not cooling down at all in fact it was hotting up, and half way through a task I realised that the light was not sparkly – I was seeing stars. The shovel was not heavy – it was my chest that was heavy. The thermometer was reading 104 and I was feeling a bit unwell. The air I was dragging into my lungs was hot. Really hot.
But I was sick of it. I had had it with the heat. I had put off too many jobs for too long because of the heat and that was that. I was going to get this finished. 
By the time I finally let myself go inside I was having trouble walking, I had stopped sweating and my head was pounding. I felt too nauseous even to drink. I lay down in front of a fan and fell completely and immediately asleep. I never thought this would happen to me. I do not succumb to the weather.
When John got home a few hours later he got such a fright to find me lying down in the middle of the afternoon that he poked me to see if I was alive.
I had narrowly avoided sunstroke I think. My body had started to boil. I told you that heat is a great weight loss program. The heat sat at 104 all the rest of the day. It was another very hot day. 
Awake now, I decided to sit down for a wee while to recover and cruise some of my favourite blogs and see what was what. That is when I discovered that I have become invisible. I looked at my weeks numbers. Hundreds of my readers have dissappeared and most of the comments I had been making throughout the week on your pages were not showing. And most of the blogs I am following are no longer showing on the reader or in my email. Am I in your spam folder? Have I dropped off your reader? Have you dropped off mine? Am I really here? Hullo!! Has there been a catastrophe, should I listen to the news? What is happening? Has WordPress got sunstroke too? Ah well. I will find you.
Good morning. I blame my narrow excape from sunstroke on being brought up at the beach. I forget how insidious the humid heat on the prairies really is. Yes, I was wearing my wide brimmed wedding hat. Yes, I had been drinking water. No, I had not gone back inside out of the heat. You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun. Ah well.
In New Zealand, just outside of a town called Rotorua, is a secret hot pool. Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity, its hot water, mud pools and tourism. This hot pool is not commercial or fancied up, it looks like a big clear deep puddle. It belongs to the locals. To find it you have to drive down some side roads and under bridges, park, then walk a wee way back into the bush. It is a wide warm pool of water. Fed by two streams. One hot and one cold. I used to visit it often when I was driving and I never once saw another person there. I would hang my dress in a tree, leave my sandals on the bank and just walk straight into the water. Early Autumn was the best time for this. At the far end of the pool the two streams enter very close to each other and I discovered that if you floated in the warm water close to where the streams flowed into the pool, holding onto this big rock, that an arm of cold water would curl around your body as you lay floating in the heat.
The sensation of the cold stream moving through the hot stream, delaying its passage for just a moment as it washed over your shoulders and down to your waist and away, is so hard to describe. I have tried for years to find the right words. The water became animate in a way. If you were able to colour the streams then you would watch a transparent deep teal column of colour swirl in. Flicking its bluegreen tail like a fat eel, mixing the colours for a moment. I used to say it was a welcome chill from the embrace of a long dead lover. Someone you miss terribly and always will. Their touch makes you flinch it is so cold and so incongruous and from another world but you want to feel it just a little longer. My skin shivers at the memory.
Yesterday in the evening I felt a cool stream of air, just like this cold water. It sliced cleanly in through the heat, brushing up against my overheated body, then moving past, followed by more and then more. The stream of cool air widened as it gathered confidence. I stood on the verandah in the dark and breathed in the blessed coolness like a starving woman. Then I walked around the house opening all the windows and doors and positioning the fans to suck more of this glorious bluegreen air into the house.
Today I will finish those tasks I started yesterday. You have a lovely day. You can Leave your Hat on, but come in out of the beating sun if it is still at your place.
Please check your spam folder and see if I am in there. Set me free.
celi
Today.. a year ago.. the bees swarm. This was my second post ever. Not destined for the book I think. But well worth checking out if you are interested in capturing a swarm of bees.
The Kitchen's Garden 
148 responses to “I never thought it would happen to me”
My numbers are way down on stats
I posted a thermometer from yesterday registering 110. And yes it was sickening but I was shopping in a bookstore not doing hard work like you. Glad you are okay.
I will check my spam but have no comments from you in my regular list. Take care Celi
I am going to go read about the bees
110.. awful.. I don;t know where they are going if they do not go into spam. Today I shall visit everyone in my comments as a test! I love to read and comment and it is aggravating when they vamoose into thin air! . You first Ruth! morning. c
Your certainly not in my spam folder and I’m glad to hear that you’ve recovered from what was apparently a close call with heatstroke. No chance of that here. I seem to be missing hundreds of readers too – unfortunately, in my case, they were in my imagination:)
I’m sorry about spelling You’re as your. No wonder people give up reading me:)
Ah well I know you can spell. And i have not given up on reading you!! c
You dodged a bullet, without a doubt. I can imagine you scared poor John out of 5 years of his life…
Love the images you paint of the pool back in NZ…I know exactly what you mean with that first cool(er) breath of breeze. It makes you notice, to think, “Ah…change. Thank You…”
Better day, today, Dear. Take things a little slower – your body needs to recover.
I am slower! Still headachy but good. So bloody stupid! c
You are not immune to heat, Celi. Be careful and use some sense. Eat something salty if you are going to do heavy work at 104 degrees, as well as replenishing fluids and wearing the hat.
The salt is a good idea.. I shall be a good girl now and use some of the sense that was knocked into my brain yesterday.. c
You can make your own healthy sports drinks which will keep you hydrated better if you are exerting yourself strenously physically. They have salt in too. Plenty of recipes online! 🙂
excellent idea! i will look! c
Maybe we know this thermal pool as we were staying in Rotorua and was taken to Kerosene Creek. it was so weird to stand under a waterfall and the water is HOT! You take care in this heat, we are having floods at the moment!
No waterfall in this one but that does sound great, i shall look out for it in december when i visit! hope you are all well over there.. c
I’m still here! I’m glad to read that YOU are still here, as well. Be careful out there!
Every now and then i need to be taught a lesson. I will be careful now.. c
You are still here, in life after your spell and in my inbox, thank goodness. Take Care, dear one.
i will be good now.. c
Glad you are ok! Becareful in that heat! My numbers are down too, you are not in my spam folder!
That is because I cannot work out how to comment on your page, your cherry pie looks fab though! c
Celi, I’m glad you’ve recovering from yesterday’s exhaustion. I hope all the farmy animals you were concerned about yesterday are much brighter today.
Do you use electrolyte drinks when you are working outdoors on the hotter days?
I’ve found you twice resting in my spam folder; it’s always such a suprise to find you there!
I am glad you found me! It is lonely in there with all the loonies! I don’t drink any of those processed drinks, Maybe I should.. just for the salt! c
They have not only salt, but electrolytes.
Do an internet search (wonderful things) and you can find recipes for making your own without all the nasties in the store bought ones.
No don’t use the processed ones! the salt is out of balance. You want one with some magnesium as well. I’ll look online and see if I can find an equivalent to the one I usually prescribe. Keep well Celi, I’ll make sure you don’t have to spend too much time with the loonies; they were all obscene last time.(apart from you)
well thank you so much for rescuing me!! and yes, i would love to know which drinks would be best and i can keep them on hand..for the bad days c
Vitalyte seems to be the closest formula to Hydralyte sports which is the brand I’m familiar with………..If you look for a product that contains sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese and copper. Drink it really cold, or made into ice blocks or a gelato.
Do you want a list of foods that contain these elements as well? if not please ignore!
sodium; processed foods and table salt
potassium; spinach, bananas, milk and orange juice.
calcium; any of Daisy’s goodies
magnesium; nuts and green vegetables
iron; meats, spinach, seafood and broccoli
zinc; seafood, meats and greens
manganese; nuts,oats,beans and tea
copper; beans, nuts and fruits.
I love this list, thank you for that and i think we are doing well with covering it almost daily.. except i have run out of bananas! I shall find some Vitalyte.. thank you.. c
I made a smoothie today trying to put most of the food groups from your list for an almost complete meal; for the next heatwave.
Here it is:
1 frozen banana (peeled and frozen overnight) chopped into chunks,
8oz milk,
4oz yoghurt (or a couple of scoops of ice cream) or both,
a handful of spinach leaves or any other greens you enjoy,
a small handful of nuts,
plus any other fruits you may like; whizz up in a blender and enjoy!
So glad you’re ok from the heat. We lost a dog and we’re feeling much sadness here. I haven’t even blogged about it yet. I haven’t blogged for about 2 weeks. We’re mostly trying to stay in and just going out to check on the animals more frequently now.
I did find one of your posts in my spam folder. They do that once in a while but I just haven’t been on much with our power being out 4 days and our internet being intermittent at best. Glad you’ve got cooler weather. Today is also supposed to be our last hot one for a while then we’re supposed to be in the 80’s. .
The swarm post was informative as was yesterday’s. I would love to get bees but may not till next year if all goes well and maybe not until the following year. Enjoy your coolness!
I thought maybe you were just busy with the milking. So sad to lose a dog. You must be miserable. I hope all the rest of your animals and family are doing OK.. It all feels so much more manageable when we are 10 degrees cooler! c
WordPress alerts coming through fine here – can be a bit dicky sometimes coming through 12 hours after I’ve read a post! Not having a wordpress account I have just saved the blogs on my favourites list and then read them when I have time.
Had to crack the ice on the birdbath this morning. Be kind to yourself today – no point being a dead hero/heroine. 🙂 Laura
Morning Laura, Maybe I should go lo tech and save my favourites too, that seems a very sensible idea even when i have wordpress.. c
Take good care of yourself there, Celi. The heat is an entity into itself in this season, or that’s how it feels to me. I hope more cool breezes cone your way to scatter it. (And I’m receiving you loud and clear.)
You must get pretty hot out there in Turkey too? esp up at the garden.. c
I thought of this post the other day while I was fortifying some of the raised beds against forced chicken entry. I had only been out for about 45 minutes and Ali called me back in for a drink of water and I was so tired out, I could barely get up after. I guess we do get pretty hot up here, too!
I’ve got you. I’ve been on the move though and prior to that, had terrible internet connection. I am just catching up. I had yours yesterday’s post up to read when this arrived in my inbox.
I fainted several times from the heat as a child and now know my warning signs for fainting. However, I am not bothered by heat any more. Well, perhpas I would be if I was working hard in the sun like you.
I remember seeing a kid faint at assembly when I was at school, she just went over like a toy soldier. terrible.. c
Good grief woman, it’s no good looking after old codgers and beasties of all kinds if you DON’T TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF! Wonderful description of your dual temperature pool. The ‘fat eel’ part spoke volumes. Have a more careful day.
Christine