I think I was scarred mentally by the awful summer we had here in 2007, when we had no days with temperatures over 30 degrees (normally we reckon on about 10 per year), so much rain it wasn't true until September when the wild mushrooms should have flourished at which point it stopped raining for 5 months, and the general unremitting murk. If I am promised fine weather and it doesn't happen, I start to sulk.
For the past five days the chaps at Meteo France have been promising a mini-heatwave starting today, Wednesday. You can imagine how unimpressed we all were - including cats - when this morning was dull and overcast and indeed it rained for a bit once we got back from the market. Harrumphes came from the garage, as it doubled as John's workshop, while he built a ramp for getting his mower into the van more easily, along with libellous statements about weather forecasters that I would not contemplate repeating. However as I was rather optimistically starting to put the laundry on the line, I noticed the sky was changing colour over the church, from an ominous dull lilac to proper turquoise blue. In the few minutes that it took me to find a camera, the blue had won half the sky, and as I type, the sun is beating down on the garden from a cloudless sky. The change took 10 minutes in all. Here is the transition line!
The latest chicken news (apart from about 120 visits to the blog site over the past week for information on broody chickens - other sites are available for this and may be more knowledgeable) is that feckless Joel has got another two including one that I call Billy, but I am sure should have a much more dignified name like Chanticleer. He is a bit camera shy at the moment, but he is truly magnificent (when he hasn't been rained on for 24 hours non-stop), you get the idea from this. When I can persuade him to do a more formal sitting, there will be a better picture.
The bad weather hasn't really helped the cherries that much although they have plumped up a bit, but the sun will now get them turning nearly black - unless the blackbirds get there first. They are also getting sweeter, and our chickens still think they are fabulous! Chicken faces will turn black with cherry juice over the next three weeks - not the prettiest sight and one that lasts a surprisingly long time. Again I will try to document the phenomenon.
We keep being told we are going to have good weather ...... but it never quite seems to arrive!!
Posted by: Anne Donald | 02 June 2010 at 07:18 PM