100 degrees!

This morning's Roanoke Times headline was "Sweltering." That pretty much sums up yesterday.

Melody grazes in her sun-crisped pasture. She reaches under the fence for a few blades of green.

Yesterday I thought it would surely rain.

As I came home from Rocky Mount, I saw clouds piling up in the sky. The leaves turned back on the trees. I knew a storm was imminent.

I was wrong. It didn’t rain.

Yesterday I thought it was unusually hot. I was right. The thermometer registered 100 degrees Fahrenheit—the hottest day of the year, so far.

The outside cats, Foxy and Camilla, came into the house for the afternoon. The dogs dug sleeping holes in the shade beside the barn. The horses sweated in front of their fan.

The evening news reported that several thousand people in Roanoke were without power on the hottest day of the year. At least we had power—and air-conditioning—here.

The fields are too dry. The corn across the road looks worse than I’ve ever seen it look this late in the season.

In the early morning light, the cornfield looks greener than it actually is.

Big cracks have appeared in the ground in the dog kennel and the horse pasture. The creeks are low. Will the well run dry?

I’d welcome a storm now. A loud, booming thunderstorm with gully-washing rain. Something to cool the air and refill the creeks and turn the fields green again.

A good rain will make things right.