Sunny Days

I know that the weather here does not compare very favourably with southern European countries but is it unfair of us to expect dawn to dusk sunshine for months on end? The southern coast of France is about 1000 miles away, and in a southerly direction at that, and I am constantly amazed at what seems to be our unreasonable expectations. True, the spring was cursed with a bitingly cold easterly wind which gave us all an unpleasant surprise when we walked into that inviting looking sunshine espied from the safety of our front rooms. And wasn’t that wind a persistent and unwelcome guest!

Can I boldly say here that I blame England for that wind – If only they had invoked some effective border control we, here in Wales, could have really got into some short-sleeved barbecuing!

But we have had some reasonable to very good weather for about four or five weeks now. Three weeks ago I took the caravan to Shawsmead near Aberaeron and it was wall-to-wall sunshine all day, it was so hot that, by afternoon, I had to seek shade. I know that the weather had been good for at least 10 days before, in fact when I arrived back home I found my garden rather parched. Let’s hope no-one is foolish enough to announce a hosepipe ban this year – you know what immediate effect that had last year, the rain hardly stopped till the autumn!

You may be wondering what has prompted this mild rant so I shall tell you. I am sitting in my sunny spot in the corner of the garden reading the paper and I come across an article that started thus –“The weather may be truly miserable this summer ….” and I thought “Hang on, hang on, that’s pushing it a bit.” Surely if you use the expression ‘truly miserable’ with regard to the weather then that has to mean persistent rain day in and day out and we are certainly not suffering that!

It is well known that the fall-back British conversation is the weather and that for some there is nothing like a good grumble but rather than grumbling we should be sloshing on the factor 20 and basking like sharks at every opportunity.

I shall be hauling the caravan to Anglesey this weekend and I shall go there with great optimism, almost confidence! I have bought in further supplies of factor 20, dubbined my walking boots – and also Nikwaxed my waterproofs!

Fingers crossed!