Scorched earth under my feet

2019

Same patch in 2013. Climate change.

Today is one of those days when bare feet are not really an option. I kick off my shoes as soon as I get home, and today has been no exception. The sun heats up dark wooden stairs very efficiently and the brick paving, being only slightly lighter, is also another source of cheap heat. The distance from inside to the wash line at the back of the garden is about 150 feet and my bare feet felt every foot of those feet. I tripped the light fantastic down the stairs, quickstepped, foxtrotted and tangoed down the bricks and reached the wash line. The soles of my feet were on fire. Pale concrete is cooler than bricks, but even then I hopscotched as I hung.
It reminded of the days of my youth, when we would walk from home in Clovelly to the Clovelly Country Club to swim in the pool. The long and winding tar road had a solid white line all along, as overtaking was and still is dangerous and impossible. We didn't wear shoes in those days either and we would never have made it to the Club without that white line!
It seems incredible that any plants are actually surviving the solar onslaught, as the sand is as hot as the bricks, and one would think that the roots are baked and the leaves boiling in their own sap. How marvellous is nature that such delicate things even exist!