Hot time, summer in the city

Here in Minnesota the weather isn't known for its heat. Around here it gets to below freezing around Halloween, just in time to ruin children's costumes, and the thermometer parks there until about Easter, when everything melts and we move into the wet and ugly season. People here are proud of the endurance in the cold. We do stupid things out in the cold like ice fishing and polar bear swims.

Our summers are not record breaking by comparison (International Falls is the coldest place in the country, look it up), every Minnesotan is quick to point out that the humidity is truly frightening here. We have more than 10,000 lakes and they turn us into a lovely sauna on the hottest of days. It doesn't get better at night, it doesn't let up in the shade. You just kick up your heels and swim wherever you're going. 

I have to say I'm a fairly typical Minnesotan in that the heat makes me as whiney as a contestant on The Bachelor. I hate sweating, I hate humidity, and I hate the bane of Minnesota summers- the giant mosquito, sometimes known as our state bird. 

But my tomatoes love it. Several of my plants would much rather have tropical heat and tremendous humidity all the time. Minnesota gardeners like myself plant all sorts of tropical plants in the hopes that we won't have a freak snow in June that kills them all. I have a few of those, like my Pineapple Sage (that's right, I said Pineapple, it's from Guatemala), and even my Mediterranean Rosemary and Sage. They look greener, grow leaves on fast forward, and pop out in blossoms while I'm hiding inside and can't see them.

How do I know this? For one thing I do run outside in thirty second bursts and run back inside. But also because the last time we broke 100 I was dumb enough to go outside. Where I made a friend, who I will leave you with for now.

 Apologies in advance for the quality of the video.