It's A Chill Wind ..........

....which makes Shadow put his paws over his ears. What am I on about? The weather of course.

I was reading today that some parts of the UK got a severe dose of the chills over the weekend with temperatures ‘plummeting’ to -6 degrees. Well, for those of you who think I’m basking in 75 degrees like I was last week, I’m sorry to have to tell you that we got the tail end of that Arctic blast which swept through the UK over the last few days.

On Friday night it sounded like the world was coming to an end as we lay in bed and heard crashes, bangs and wallops all around us outside on the terrace. I’ve never heard winds like it, even during  the ‘great storm of 87’! In the morning I was afraid to look outside but inevitably I had to, as Shadow wanted to go out for his morning ablutions, albeit after a bit of persuasion. I use the word ‘persuasion’ as he was lying on the bedroom carpet with his legs crossed and his paws over his ears. He’s not the bravest dog around especially when the weather’s not good!

I have to admit that the damage wasn’t as bad as I feared. A couple of heavy glass ashtrays had been picked up and thrown over the terrace. The washing was up in the terraces. A very heavy plant pot (with plant) was smashed and the pool was full of all sorts of things including millions of oak leaves. Venturing out later in the day I noticed a few fallen trees and telegraph poles but nothing serious, however, in the next department down the coast from us (The Var) they were really counting the cost with 100mph plus winds breaking everything in sight. The local officials are trying to get it designated as a ‘regional catastrophe’ which means it must be bad.

And then on Saturday…..it was lovely again. Weird! It was even nice enough for me and the kids to go logging in the woods. I’m always on the lookout for fallen trees because it’s a nice source of easy firewood, but this time, as I was chainsawing away on a piece of ground I thought was ‘municipal’, a French guy wandered up and said I was on his land and what was I doing taking his wood? A short Franglais conversation ended in a truce and a great Anglo/French compromise with me taking his wood and him taking down my car number plate! It’s registered to J so I’m not too worried. 

Overnight, in addition to the death throes of Jodie Kidd on ‘Strictly Come Prancing’ which initially woke me up (I had an early night), there was really heavy rain which wakened me at approx 3am. It must’ve been bouncing 3 feet off the terrace it was so fierce. And yes, Shadow had his paws over his ears again. We don’t need a weather vane – we just look at Shadow!

Then this morning, as I opened the blinds I saw the clouds down in the valley (see picture) which usually means it’s going to be very hot or, at this time of year, very cold (well, cold for us) and as I took the kids down to the bus stop we realised it was indeed a cold one – there was snow on the hills.

So, in one weekend we’ve had hurricane winds, lovely sunshine, heavy rain, a very cold snap and some snow up on them thar hills. Global warming indeed.