The Weather – The Good, The Bad and the Downright Ugly

We’re talking about the weather out here like the Brits do back home. It’s the main point of discussion at dinner, at BBQs, in the bar – how absolutely awful it is. However not all is bad. Bizarrely, there are some good things associated with our terrible ‘British’ weather, which is probably not an accurate comparison this year given that even Glasgow has had better weather than the Côte d’Azur.

So here’s a list of the good and the bad:

The Good

The swimming pool doesn’t need topping up because (a) evapouration is minimal and (b) what evapouration there is, is replenished by the constant rain.

The severe frost we had for a couple of days back in February killed a swarm of wasps which had made nests under my roof tiles. These horrible little creatures made life hell down at the pool but they exist no more. Unfortunately, I paid out a lot of cash to buy 10kg of wasp killing powder which is no longer needed. I’m sure they’ll be back.

I don’t have to spend hours each week watering the garden – o.k. when I did have to do this, I just set the sprinkler but I do have to remember to move it every 20 minutes or so.

Plants are thriving in the wet, humid weather. My cala lilies are growing like crazy and save me about €30 every couple of weeks in visits to the florist – that €5 for a plant I bought in Italy a couple of years ago is my best investment ever!

The Bad

The frost which killed the wasps also killed quite a few plants. One of the main casualties was the magnificent bougainvillea plant which climbed all over Tan and Angie’s terrace walls and which drew admiring comments from everybody who saw it. Now it’s a brown, shriveled, bare expanse of branches – but the other day I discovered some new shoots coming from the base – it’ll take another 10 years to get back to its former glory but at least it’s not dead as we thought it was.

The rain which falls every second day prevents me from keeping the ground around the house tidy. OK – the sun shines every now and again but the ground is still too wet to mow or work on and the rain and occasional sunny day is making the weeds grow like triffids.

We’re having to eat inside instead of spending nice evenings eating outside on the terrace.

Wearing just a t-shirt when riding my scooter is a no-no – far too cold.

My legs are white when they are normally a golden brown colour due to the fact that I’m still wearing long jeans instead of shorts.

The Downright Ugly

Well the rain which caused the flooding in the Var a week or so ago was certainly not very pleasant and I’m sure before long the weather will be so hot some fires will start in the woods down here.

Stop Press

Maybe, just maybe the weather has changed. The last three days have seen nice, pleasant, sunny weather. No in the 90s mind – just a pleasant ‘English’ 75 degrees or so. Still- it’s a start.

And more - my picture was supposed to have all the 'sunshine' symbols overlaid on it but when I copied it from the Meteo France site, all the sunshine disappeared - prophetic?