Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Seasoned by weather

Thanks to an item on RTE Radio 1 the other morning I now realise that this blog is entirely responsible for the long run of miserable summers which we are having to endure. I apologise, & will do all in my power to bring back better weather ASAP.

I knew that it was a long time, but I hadn’t realised that there has been no decent summer since 2006 – at least not in Ireland & so presumably not in the north west of England either. So it is not a coincidence that there has been no good summer following the commencement of this blog in the autumn of 2006; the world shifted on its axis at this seismic event & the jet stream rushed in to blow it all away.

We had seven days of warm weather & no rain – though not an awful lot of sunshine – last week but Saturday marked the beginning of the end, with several sudden sharp localised showers of the type to which we have become all too miserably accustomed.

Sunday brought thunder; one lone massive rolling rumble just after lunch, followed much later by two shorter but sharply resounding cracks around tea time which set all the dogs barking & brought an immediately noticeable sharp drop in temperature.

Monday was back to heavy intermittent showers & today is actually cold enough to make everybody regret not wearing a heavier jumper or jacket.

Much more fuss has been made about rain this summer. Since it has also hit the south east & especially London, the national media have noticed, have themselves endured the sheer exasperation, frustration & vexation leading to depression & fatigue brought about by having to dash or scurry whenever forced to go outside; the fashion writers have been dishing out advice on what to wear – they should have consulted us who have the wisdom brought about by long experience.

Funnily enough though, I don’t think our summer has been noticeably worse than the others we have experienced in recent years, even though the weathermen have been telling us about record rainfall in every region. Some time I must get round to looking at the variability on a much smaller finer scale – could be interesting.

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not,
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot,
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!