i bought 2 plastic planter pots last week that i wanted to return. i had a sudden change of heart and decided to use them. i bicycled to belmont with pots in tow. into each pot i mixed a combination of top soil, peat moss, and manure. i then planted the caladium tubers i'd been saving since last autumn. many of them look dry enough to be dead, but a few have sprouts that just may emerge as leaves. that still leaves me a bag of 2 dozen unplanted gladiolus bulbs. i prefer bulbs that i can leave in the ground and survive a new england winter than delicate ones i have to dig up and save at the end of the year.

even though my father probably already watered the garden this morning, i watered it again before i left. the jasmines are flowering like crazy; to think i almost killed that plant when i had it growing in the shady confines of my summertime kitchen. the aloes - now out of direct sun - have also greened back to normal health.

there's are currently one (possibly two) fancy gourd. it's growing fast, now the size of a mango. it still has a pale complexion and i wonder when it'll start showing its colors and patterns. there are also a few small immature bottle gourds; i'm deciding whether to keep them or chop them off because they don't have a good shape to them (not the traditional "hulu" shape).

i harvested half a dozen korean cucumbers. they get more yellow as they grow, so i decided their maturity not based on color but their shapes (a few were widening like over-ripen cucumbers). my mother took them all with her to the cafe so i don't know how they taste.

during the 3 mile trip back to cambridge, the heat finally got to me. i started to have cold chills, which i've experienced in the past, and know to be a sign of heat exhaustion. i took a shower when i got back and quickly rehydrated with water and orange juice.

it was hot today, but several degrees cooler than yesterday. the official boston temperature taken from logan airport never broke 90 degrees, so not official a heat wave, but here in cambridge it reached 90+.