Beating the Heat

We've had a long stretch of sweltering weather lately -- no real surprise for late July, of course, so it's hard to complain. But it's also hard to absorb day after day. Everything in the yard is just, I don't know, droopy. And I'm afraid I'm no exception.

A few years ago we discovered the single best antidote to summer's malaise: real fruit Italian ice ordered window-side. There's no shop to pop into, no public restroom. Just a single person usually reading a book behind the screen, waiting for some overheated citizen to pop over and order up a coconut and papaya, pineapple and lemon, or my standard, raspberry and lime.

You can sit on one of two park benches positioned in the parkway outside. The benches face the building, which is adorned with the handmade birdhouses you see above. And it's suddenly easy to forget there's traffic speeding by or blistering heat beyond the shade.