The temperature was well into the 80s when I got outside to take some morning photos.

It’s always challenging to capture extreme heat in a photograph. One tip-off is that the animals enter the barn until sunrise.

Another is that Zip strolls across the grass, heading for shade. He has no interest in Maria or me when it’s this hot, and he stays out of the sun. I can’t be in this kind of heat for short excursions.

The donkeys and sheep graze at night. Maria has to go into the Pole Barn to brush them. Fate pays no attention; Bud and Zinnia want to sleep inside.

I am strongly warned to stay inside, drink a lot, and avoid sunlight. I’m quarantined.  I nearly had a heat stroke last summer, but I learned my lesson and now take this heat seriously.

I’ll go to the pantry around noon to see the food truck come in from Albany, then head inside. I can take flower pictures on the back porch and in the shade. Later, I’ll rest, drink water, blog, and read.

I’ll be a good boy and do what I am told.

But I won’t stop blogging or taking pictures; there’s no reason to. I have an office air conditioner and another in the living room. I have a couple of promising books to read. All is well. I feel for the people stuck in their city apartments with little or no air conditioning. I just wanted to say hang in there. I feel for the farmers and police officers working in the heat.

And for the food pantry visitors who have no AC,

Zip heads for the shade of the bushes.

The donkeys know when to stay out of the sign, and so do the sheep. Maria brushes them in the barn.

The hens head for one of the lilac bushes. Animals know when to take it easy and how to stay warm.