Greetings! Welcome to #WeekendCoffeeShare, thank you for meeting me on this Saturday. Please come on in. It’s forecasted to be another scorcher today.

First, I would give you a glimpse of the main part of the back garden. The moment to look good has long passed. Even under shade cloth, the plants are still getting scorched by the sun and wilting under the heat.

I spent the evenings pruning away dead leaves and spraying the plants and soil for pests. I am having an invasion of pests in my garden this year – spider mites, earwigs, thrips, even squash bugs. I’ve already gone through 2 bottles of organic insect control sprays and might just have to settle for Neem Oil concentrate (which I have), as opposed to spending the money to buy a few more bottle of sprays.

The watermelon is still the same size as the last time I showed it to you, while pests are chowing down on whatever seedlings I place in the ground.

The fava beans (aka broad beans) that mom has commanded me to plant despite my repetitive protests and explanations that fava bean grow in cool weather have, well, either died or limping along in a half-dead-half-alive fashion. She kept saying if it can be grown in the heat of southern China, then it can be grow in the heat of Utah. I am 99% positive those broad beans she saw in China were either planted in the early spring or late fall (early winter), not in the middle of the summer when it’s hotter than the gates of hell.

I can tell it’s suffering from the heat despite being planted beneath a tree, in a spot that gets afternoon shade, and under a 70% shade cloth 12 hours a day. The plant does not like the heat. I guess that’s my proof to mom that my words aren’t false. So I hope she’ll stop contradicting every word I say.

I went to my yearly follow-up with my dermatologist this week and the first thing she asked was if I have gone back to China recently. Still the same question, ugh. I am so sick of this question because I’ve been telling her and my rheumatologist since 2018 I’m done with China. I have no more family (that I care about) there and I went to China both times in 2017 and 2018 were to take care of business, tie up loose ends.

I would never return to my hometown for the fun of it. The humidity is through the roof, the weather is either hot or cold, nothing in between. I experienced culture shock during my previous visits and was laughed at by my aunts and uncles, and let’s not forget about the people, they were everywhere, triggering my claustrophobia to a whole new level. Let’s just say, though I looked like every other person on the street, I still stood out like a sore thumb, even in my hometown.

I don’t understand why these 2 doctors can only remember this about me. They don’t ask about work or anything else, just about whether I have plans to return to China. Do they not understand the US is my home, has been my home for the last 22 years? If there’s anywhere I will return to, it’s the US, not China.

Anyway, there wasn’t much wrong with my skin other than it was severely dry and cracked. The doctor told me to get some butter. I found a tub of shea butter and have been applying it for the last few nights. Though my hands and legs felt oily afterwards, I did wake up with softer skin, so I guess that helped.

#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂