Although the flood waters have receded the ground is so wet that every morning the dew is heavy and the sun rises into misty wet air. The humidity is saturating.
We have not had a full hot drying sunny day in weeks. The clouds and heavy humid stillness hang in the air. Hangs with the air. It is the air. Malodorous. The air is thick and smells brown.
The tomatoes are not ripening and the few that have are tasteless. Too much water. Not enough sun. The early sweet corn is the same. Though my courgette crop from the porch garden keeps on coming!
And it is great for the new trees.
The humidity is literally turning surfaces in the house green with mildew. My coats: leather and oilskin, all have mildew spots. The doors and shelves. I am oiling them all again this weekend. Air thick with humidity.
I say this only because I feel anxious to make a plan to cope with these changes. Increased use of water and electricity cannot be solutions. High tech solar will not work without ample sun. Even our wind is quiet. We need to create ways to cope using our own strong bodies and minds. ( I still like the idea of an exercise bicycle that creates instant power. I would invest in that technology. All it needs is an iPad and I know many retired husbands who could peddle while they surf the internet instead of laying on the couch with the IPad. We need one that will run a dehumidifier though – so far the bikes don’t power very much). Or do they? Do they have plug ins? I need to research the latest.
I always thought a gym could supply power for itself. And as the last person gets off the last bicycle it slows to a stop, the lights dim and flicker as we pan in on the slowly slowing peddle. Peddle goes still. Lights off. Sound of door slamming. Silence.
Can you see the two mini flocks? If I could capture all three chick flocks in one image that would be a treat.
Mr Flowers is super friendly with me now Pania is gone. He follows me everywhere as I do evening chores.
Anyway. Today is dawning humid and hot again. I will be baking though. I have avoided it for weeks and I need to test bake more flours today.
The starter is fed. I lost one starter, that was stored in the fridge, to mold which has not happened before. Luckily I always keep two. Even the fridge is humid.
Take care!
miss c
PS … you will have noticed that carefree naïve ‘celi’ has gone. As one of my oldest friends from our beach days said – (We grew up in my Dads boat building workshop, fishing off the piers and dropping everything EVERYTHING to go surfing.) He said “ c, we are not bullet proof anymore”. The virus is creeping back – California cases are in the news, New Zealand is still closed, Canada is still closed, Melbourne is back on lock down. This time we will make sure to lock ourselves down with a little more luxury and a little more planning and a little less frantic anxiety. And I am back to ‘don’t mess with me’ miss c.
The Kitchen's Garden 
42 responses to “The Damp”
I have returned from the midwest where the humid miasma felt almost unbearable. no fun, all this moisture.
You smelt it too!! Plus it hits the throat breathing it in.
Methinks your ‘don’t mess with me’ feeling is part of many of us by now ! Had read of Dale’s house-wide problems and surely can empathize with yours ! Our freezing and blustery winter precludes such, but . . . we in NSW are in last year’s Melbourne-style ever-tightening lockdowns now, supposedly until end of October, and those who have no understanding are beginning to protest country-wide with little comprehension how much worse they are making the situation. As far as the number affected or dead we are still the ‘Lucky Country’ but personally I am glad at the moment to live away from the madding throng . . . Take care and the best with getting rid of the wretched damp . . .
I think I have to learn to live with the damp as long as I am here. I do agree about the safely in moving rurally. Although very few people out here believe the virus is even real – at least there are fewer people.
I can imagine how awful the humidity is, you can almost drink the air. I don’t have air conditioning and had some issues with mold on leather. I found a product called Damp Rid. It comes in small bag type things or in little buckets (like a 5 qt ice cream bucket), I’ve put a bucket in just about every closet and it seems to be working. You just have to remember to check them periodically for when they need replacing.
Huh! That sounds interesting. What is it made of?
Not entirely sure but there are granules in it and apparently they suck the moisture out of the air and when the bag or bucket fill up you dump it out and put a new one in. This year I see they have refillable ones so you don’t have to buy the entire bucket.
Well shoot, I don’t know where my reply went. Anyway, I’m not sure what they’re made of but there are granules in it that apparently suck the moisture out of the air and when the bucket or bag is full you dump it and put a new one in. This year I was able to get a big bottle of just the granules so I didn’t have to buy the whole bucket.
we have been cooler than average [90s instead of 100+] and sticky humid. watch out for Covid 30, that’s the weight you gain in quarantine. =)
We are the same – sticky humid and cooler. And all this summer when it rains – it is a gusher / we got another two inches in one shower last night. Extraordinary!
Some of the heavy brown flavor of the air could come from the western fires’ smoke, as it’s drifting across the continent (and there are regional wildfires as well). If you zoom out on this map, you can see how smoke covers the US:
https://data.statesmanjournal.com/fires/
Now that IS interesting- so the more the fires burn the less sun we all have – that is an unnerving thought.