Saturday 4 August 2018

Torpor




Just as I no longer believe that we will ever emerge from under the scaffolding,
our roofers having abandoned us for unfathomable reasons of their own,
I also no longer believe that there will be an end to blue skies and stifling heat.

In reality there can only be the briefest interlude of 'perfect' summer weather.
It is forecast and eagerly anticipated.
It arrives and is greeted with joy, and plans for a picnic,
then the doubts set in.
Will it last?
Will it last until important outdoor event x?
Then it does last and the heat builds.
New doubts perturb us.
It is too dry. Reservoirs will empty.
Farmers are worried.
What are those sheep eating
down there on the brown marshes?
My fig tree has lost its leaves.
How do they survive in Greece?
A hose pipe ban is inevitable.
It is too hot to sleep at night.
People behave oddly in the street outside at 2am.
It is too hot to go walking at midday.
I fall asleep instead.
I haven't put enough factor 50 on.
The new baby will overheat.
Linen is scratchy and doesn't look good corrugated around my waist.

Somehow the perfect endless summer of our winter dreams
has played a trick on us.
Two weeks is quite enough as long as it covers
important outdoor event x.
22C is just nice as long as there isn't a brisk NE wind.

This. This is just taking a good thing too far.




8 comments:

  1. Our air conditioning broke one summer and I only survived the repair period by breathing into a cup of ice cubes when I felt as though I was about to suffocate and going to bed at night with sport socks filled with frozen rice (uncooked) and the fan going full blast. I sympathize.

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  2. No, it's lovely, but then I don't have to go out to work and am quite happy to live on cottage cheese and tomatoes.
    So I'm not pining for fog just yet. But local potato growers are looking unhappy ...

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  3. Still loving it here, but it's not been brutally hot so far. There was dew on the grass this morning! I am looking forward to a hot day watching cricket. It's wonderful if I don't have to do anything taxing! CJ xx

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  4. Too far indeed! I am dancing for rain.

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  5. Beautifully written. Much the same here, though we did get a couple inches of rain recently.

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  6. We here on the west coast of Scotland are having alternate days sunshine and rain and lower temperatures - feels normal again (but it was lovely while it lasted!)

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  7. How nicely you put it. My thoughts exactly, though I speak from an coast untouched by the current heatwave (ours was last month) and safe in the knowledge that even if it reaches us, important outdoor event x is over and the solar frogs put away.

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