escape from the heat

Ecstatic, delighted, defeated, miserable? I probably cycle through all of those emotions in a single September day. I think a hot day’s super power is in how all-encompassing and omnipresent it can feel, blotting out memory and awareness of anything but the sweaty skin you currently inhabit. We must have stayed outside talking and playing gin rummy until 8 o’clock last night, until it was cool enough to think about eating — mosquitos aren’t too bad if you keep incense lit, and those last hours as the heat drains out of the garden are now the best part of the day.

So playing cards all evening in the garden is great, but maybe there’s other things to do when the day cools down?

• This Saturday, September 7, you can hang out in the Getty’s Central Garden until 9 p.m. as part of Mother Earth’s Plantasia; free, no reservations required.
• Also on Saturday, September 7, 7:30 p.m., LACMA is holding its annual late-night party Muse ’til Midnight; ticket details here.
• Sponsored by KCRW, Descanso Gardens is holding “Three Saturdays of Experimental Music Under the Oaks” collectively titled “Silence at Descanso,” September 7, 21, and 28; ticket information here

So hang on, the heat will break soon. In the meantime, I know I’m ready for a few postcards from spring, from fog, from lush places, and I found a few after rummaging through photos from Mitch’s recent travels, mostly in California and a few in England. Because I find what a long, hot day really lacks is some cool contrast.