Early in the morning I can tell how hot it might be by the color of my neighbor’s white house.

Disclaimer: An artist–I notice subtleties of color.

If the color is bluish, it most probably would be what my Mother would have called a “Blue Bird Day.” One of those clear, gorgeous, New England days, cloudless always in the morning, with sometimes puffy clouds accumulating in the afternoon.

If the color is a combination of “yellow” and “purple,” the day almost always seems to be what some New Englanders might call a “scach’a” or a scorching hot day. Muggy and hot.

Early this morning, yup, my neighbor’s house was a combination of “yellow” and “magenta (purple)” and yup, today is a scorcher.

Up early, early, early to enjoy the “cool of the day.”

I don’t like scorchers much, but I find that they prepare me for winter. By the end of August, I’m ready for those muggy days to end, and relish the cool days ahead.

But then, by January, if it’s a bad, bad winter, I’m complaining bitterly and putting up photos of snow.

So I’m going to put up a picture of snow, and slippery ice, and a grey freezing day now, so that I’ll appreciate the scorcher that is today.

Yucky picture of snow to remind me how much I actually enjoy green, lush, hot summer days.

Hot summer day.