Curl Up In The Coolness

"Be soft and cool like water, so you can adjust anywhere in life." (Rishika)

Today is all about staying cool, which is why this little rock garden caught my attention.

We drove into the heat of summer in southern China this morning and immediately faced off-the-chart temps and humidity like nothing we ever experience back home, even in the worst of heat waves. Even Chris, who has spent many years in the Arizona deserts and grew up as a kid in Bangkok, admits the heat here in China is incomparable to anything he's ever seen. Unlike the U.S. visitors we have here this week, we're used to it after so many years, but seeing their horrified reaction to stepping outside into the blazing sun drives home the severity of a Chinese summer with sizzling clarity!

For those of you following my East Coast Dash Diaries from earlier this month, I've added two more entries today about my friend and fellow Blipper, Deb Bifulco - a visit to her house, a cool and quiet evening spent on her deck and a few heaping helpings of her scape pasta were all a welcome pause to the frantic race of the Dash!

June 10th - Garlic Scape Pasta
June 11th - Baroness of Bread

This is my ninth summer in China, Chris' tenth, and we've become fairly adept at beating the heat when we have to be here during the hottest time of year. The girls and I have spent many summers jumping from one pool to another as we made our journeys with Dad around the Southern Provinces, often for business, sometimes for pleasure. The ranking of a hotel is always based upon how good or bad the pool is, and we've seldom spent a day without hitting the water at one point or another. There have been days so hot we've foregone any type of sightseeing until after the sun has set and instead have spent all day wallowing in the coolness of the pool, only getting out to grab a bite of lunch or another cold drink. It's a blissful and practical way of managing the heat of summer, and many of our favorite pictures of the girls are in one bathing suit or another as we all traveled around China through the summer months!

Anxious to take advantage of the inexpensive, yet meticulously managed, golf courses here in Southern China, Chris and his pals have often made the brave decision to venture out with their clubs on a sunny summer Saturday or Sunday. When I can get the girls out of bed, we all go along for the ride and take pictures of the boys at their golfing best. But despite their own personal cheering section and the pre-dawn tee times, the guys can't escape the sweltering heat out on the links, and by noon are dripping wet, bleary-eyed and ready for the reprieve and coolness of the club. No golf outing is ever attempted without an additional golf cart dedicated to carrying a cooler full of ice and a wide array of hydrating drinks. Pocari Sweat has always been the drink of choice and its electrolytes have saved many a golfer from dehydration on the course (although nothing seems to save their scores, which always manage to wilt as the sun climbs higher in the sky!)

There will come a time when we won't be facing the heat of summer in China and perhaps we'll miss all the fun we had just trying to stay cool. But for today, I'm beating the heat by focusing on this little rock garden with its tiny dragons frolicking in the rushing water and the bright purple blooms clinging to the rocks, happily enjoying the fountain, all beckoning me to curl up in the coolness.