Saturday, 10th July

[Sybille Weber]

After last weekend when temperatures went up to as much as 37 degr. C. we had two nice days with temperatures around 25 after a thunderstorm on Sunday night, but then temperatures started to rise again, and all week has been hot. Again 37 today, and we live on the second floor under the roof, so it does get hot. Fortunately though we can escape to my parents' flat on the first floor which is a little cooler. Too hot to sit in front of the computer during the day, so I haven't been around here very often lately. My health is not the best anyway at present, so this hot weather is killing me. Flashes of lightning to be seen in the distance now, although no thunder to be heard yet. Hope we'll get some rain and cooler temperatures afterwards, although they said if we get thunderstorms then they are going to be accompanied by torrential rain, hail and severe storms, so not a nice prospect either, but we certainly do need the rain. Everything looks brown outside. Still 31 degr. inside now and in the upper 20ies outside, and it's 2 am. Kath, we can only dream of your temperatures - 21 outside at 9:40 and 24 inside.
A strong wind coming up now, so I guess the weather front with thunder and lightning is coming nearer. Better switch of the computer now. Last week we had a flash of lightning (or rather a fire ball that exploded) almost out of the blue. It was thunder and lightning at the same time, so must have been very close. The dark clouds were only in the distance with just a few small ones above our heads and the sun still shining, so it did come as a surprise. It was just like an explosion and quite frightening.

[Kath Mulligan]

Oh my goodness, Sybille, I thought our nighttime temperatures were bad enough but yours sound horrible! I'm surprised you manage to get any sleep at all in that level of heat. Hope your storm, if it arrived, wasn't too bad, just gave you the amount of rain you need and maybe freshened the air a little. That thunderclap you had sounded rather frightening.

We've got a bit more breeze this morning and there's some light cloud around so temperatures are much more comfortable at the moment.

My garden is very dry but the lawn is still fairly green. I'm letting it grow a bit longer between mowings in the hope that it will stay green. I saw a picture in yesterday's paper of Hyde Park in London looking more like an arid desert than a green oasis, not a blade of grass to be seen, and the forecasts seem to be for this dry hot weather to continue throughout July and August so I should imagine there will be many plants that get killed off, especially since we now have a hosepipe ban here in the North West of England. After the amount of snow we had over the winter it seems ridiculous to see just how low our reservoirs have become. We need to find better ways to conserve our rainfall to avoid these situations, or even to invest in desalination plants to utilise sea water. Seems silly not to do that when we are an island nation surrounded by sea!

Kath

[gloria townsin]

I can never understand how we run out of water so quickly.......as you say Kath we had enough snow to keep us going for a while and yet a few weeks of light or no rain and it's all panic stations regarding water supplies.

[Sybille Weber]

Glad to hear there is a breeze blowing at your end now, Kath.
Last night's thunderstorm turned out to be rather short with approximately 1/2 hour of rain which was not too heavy. It is a little "cooler" now, just 35 instead of yesterday's 37! I envy my sister who has just left for a week's holiday on the German Northsea coast where temperatures are said to be between "only" 25 - 28 with a nice breeze blowing. Oh dear, don't know how I will get through my dentist appointment on Wednesday in this heat.
No hose pipe bans over here. I have only been discussing this topic with Rolf the other day wondering why England is more often hit by water shortage than Germany. My guess is that it is probably because we have a lot of rather big and long rivers in Germany which keep supplying us with water, but that's only a guess.

[tricia2ws]

Oh my goodness Sybille, that sure is hot, it would kill me, am moaning about it being 31 in london, hope it cools a little for you, it's another bright, hot day here, the gardens are crying out for water, everywhere you look the grass is just brown, my garden is a dust bath, the pollen is high as well as my itchy eyes will tell you, we need a good ole dollop of rain for sure, am waiting for the hosepipe ban to spread down this far Kath, bet it won't be long. x tricia

[Kath Mulligan]

It's turned very much cooler up here now with quite a stiff breeze blowing and temps only in the mid sixties. Claire and I were sitting outside a little while ago reading but both of us have now come indoors because, after the past few weeks, it felt quite chilly. At least sleeping should be much more comfortable tonight.

Have just been harvesting! We are having home grown potatoes, carrots and peas for tea tonight, along with lamb steaks, and fresh mint from the garden too. The carrots certainly wouldn't meet any EU regulations on size and shape, but hopefully they will taste good!

Kath

[Sybille Weber]

It's turned very much cooler up here now with quite a stiff breeze blowing and temps only in the mid sixties........Kath

Our stiff breeze yesterday was more like a hurricane, a lot of devastation done, trees and roofs came down, camp sites were blown away altogether, no trains running and many people injured, and a few death penalties, too. The storm just lasted for a few minutes followed by another few minutes of rain, and then it was over. Temperatures dropped to around 28 afterwards, and at 31 degrees today has been a little cooler then recently. 35 forecast for tomorrow though.

[gloria townsin]

Crazy weather.......Eddie keeps coming in and telling me one minute he is working in brilliant sunshine and the next it's pouring.........Must get off this machine and go do something in the garden, we will probably be back in Herts shortly and I don't want to have a last minute panic to get jobs done...........by the way we now have a swanky shiny tiled bathroom floor.......whoo hoo.........needless to say it looks good because Eddie did it!! He had a few, did I say few?, things to sort along the way in terms of 'what the h--l did they do that for' jobs that builders, plumbers and electricians have had their hand in. I mean to put the airing cupboard heater on you have to lay flat on your stomach and stretch as far as you can for the switch, which would have been much simpler for them to install and us to use higher up on the cupboard wall.......we shake our heads so much at the workmen's decisions it's a wonder they haven't fallen off!!

[Kath Mulligan]

I mean to put the airing cupboard heater on you have to lay flat on your stomach and stretch as far as you can for the switch, which would have been much simpler for them to install and us to use higher up on the cupboard wall.......we shake our heads so much at the workmen's decisions it's a wonder they haven't fallen off!!

How utterly ridiculous! What on earth is the point in putting a switch in a virtually inaccessible position, especially since this is where you are going to be spending your retirement years! I should struggle now to get down on the floor to reach it since my knees don't do kneeling or bending at easily these days. Can you get it moved higher up?

Kath

[Linda]

Yesterday after arriving home from Glasgow on a ferry that was swinging from side to side. driving off it was a bit scary as the boat kept lungeing from one side to the other and the ramp was lifting off the pier.....woah!! The sea was the higest I have ever seena dn was nearly weashing over the pierhead as you drive round it...the rain batteredd the car...at WHiting Bay the road was awash with seaweed asthe sea crashed over the sea wall....the road had collapsed and a very large hole was on my side...swerved to avoid that!
At home teh roof is once again giving us problems..Jeff had had to go with his boss to Manchester and had left a bucket in the kitchen to catch the water as it dripped from the ceiling...he missed his breakfast as he was on the roof trying to find the leak....as the rain battered the sun room roof....cats were carefully finding their way through a flooded floor...some high up on furniture making their way across the room..it came down very hard!
Later when I was in bed I was awoken to the sound of heavy thunder...lightening....and rumbles....
Today its clearer but muggy.....what weather eh? and still havent got the silage done....

[Kath Mulligan]

Flippin' heck, Linda, sounds as though that was quite a journey you had, and then to come back to find your home flooded again - not good. Hope you soon manage to find out where the leak is coming from and that Jeff can fix it. Knowing how much our cat hated water, I can't imagine that yours were too impressed at having rain inside as well as out!

Kath

[jane jackson]

Crikey Linda, that sounds dreadful ~ in your summer holidays too. It's absolutely pelting down here now since 2pm so all our beautiful petunias will be getting battered yet again but that's nothing really compared to your sunroom roof, do hope you manage to sort it.

[gloria townsin]

Yes the switch can be moved.......so it's on the every growing, 'to do' list of Eddie's........wouldn't be so bad if we didn't keep paying for the work that Eddie ends up doing. He did manage to get over to the builder that the dryer hosing was unacceptable and that he had to do it himself in the end.......the lad who did (or rather didn't) do that job was the same one who built one step 3" and the next one 6+" - something else they have to alter......that is to the patio. It's actually quite dangerous as your mind doesn't think it's going down a steeper step than the first. Also the decking wasn't given any drainage, it was done the day Eddie was really ill and so he wasn't watching them, so another job they have to re-do bits of. Still no building inspection.......back in Herts. now.

[pauline]

Gloria, do you think the word "Builders" is a gross misrepresentation on their part. Someone should black out this word on their van and add the word "Cowboys".

The catalogue of disasters just goes on and on. Look to the future when I'm sure you'll be very happy at Bryher! :yes4: and take heart because a lot of us have been there!

[gloria townsin]

I guess I expect better for £69,000 +...........and that's just the builders.