August

Lying on the bed at night in underwear with the window shutter flung wide open, chancing that a bat should fly through. Children are sleeping around the house in mosquito nets. Looking forward to some cooler days.

We are carried to sleep by the sounds of the cicadas outside and wake up very early to beautiful sunshine falling through the windows everywhere.

This is HYPERBOLE. The maximum of produce and of heat.

Everyone seems to be escaping to the mountains to eat their salads, and excessively praising winter — expressions of their grass-is-always-greener longings. There is refreshing watermelon, which strangely seems to arrive just at the right moment. There are tri-coloured capsicums and cucumbers, cos lettuces and potatoes which we will see in some gnocchi form or other in the following winter months. There are cannellini beans to be used now and dried for the months ahead. There are almonds, hazelnuts and even the chillies are at the peak of their heat, and wild, drying Middle Eastern-smelling fennel flowers. There are still so many tomatoes.