Friday, July 21, 2023

If It Must Be

 If we must have summer, then I want more summers like this July has been! We had our heatwave earlier in the season. By that I mean an Irish heatwave, which is quite mild (even if too hot for me) and would feel quite cool for millions of people right about now. I am no fan of bright sunny days and hot temperatures, but I am mindful of the fact that so many are suffering in dreadfully hot conditions right now. We don't get that kind of thing for which I am eternally grateful.

What we do get is rain. It has been pretty rainy for the month of July. There were a few mornings that felt like the edge of autumnal, at least for a few hours. I sat in the conservatory, sipped tea, and just enjoyed it. Today has been a rainy day--the kind I love. Rain, rain, more rain, and then it rained some more, sometimes heavy showers. You can't see the rain very well in this picture, but it was lashing down at the time--it's just visible in the top left and bottom right corners. 

More rain is expected through tonight, tomorrow, and tomorrow night--yay! The downside is the increased levels of various sorts of fungal spores. As usual at this time of year, I have a scratchy throat with an occasional tickle which makes me cough, fatigue, and other issues as a result. But here we are, in what seems like the blink of an eye, staring down the end of July. 

It's cool enough that people have their fires burning--they do love their open fires here and stores sell various sorts of fuel year-round. Whatever the neighbourhood fire is being fueled by tonight, it smells gross.

Whatever the weather in your part of the world, I hope July has been a good one for you and if it's roasting, I hope it cools off soon!

6 comments:

Vicki said...

Glad it's cooled down there, wish it would here. Our weather this summer has been like a sauna with heavy rain due to it being our rainy season. I'm tired of my glasses fogging up the second I walk outside and my car taking so long to cool down. The weather won't start cooling down here until October.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

I love rain too, but a nice gentle rain for a day or two, not the kinds of torrents that seem to be the only kind we see of late. I abhor excessive heat more than almost anything, and the sooner we get into September the better. At least we don’t have to endure the out-of-control fires that are destroying our northern forests.

Lowcarb team member said...

I'm not a lover of very hot weather ...
We have been fortunate to have some rain during July.

My two favourite seasons are Spring and Autumn.

All the best Jan

Shari Burke said...

Vicki--I look at the temps on your blog and think, 'I would be one cranky curmudgeon!' Your lows are often hotter than our heatwaves!

David--I chuckled when I read your comment about September's arrival--me, too. When August would roll around in Fairbanks, I'd open the door to let the dogs out each morning and do a little sniff, waiting for the first little nip in the air to tell me that autumn would be arriving soon. By the end of the month the leaves would be changing. The fires are heartbreaking.

Jan--I'm sure your flowers loved the rain! I eagerly await autumn each year--two months until the equinox!

Rostrose said...

Dear Shari,
I still remember hearing from our B&B landlady towards the end of our trip to Ireland in 2015: "We're going to have a heat wave! 27 degrees are being announced!" That only cost us a mild smile, because 27 degrees Celsius falls under "moderate summer temperatures" even for us Central Europeans. By the way, the announced Irish heat wave did not materialize, instead it rained on the Emerald Isle when we left it. (While we were there we had sunshine most of the time, yet it was still comfortably cool - which I love.) I saw a couple of weeks ago that it's raining a lot in Ireland these days - you're probably getting all the rain off that is missed everywhere else. Here in eastern Austria we had a two to three week heat wave with around 30 and maximum temperatures of (I think) 35 degrees. And two days later it was 15 degrees cooler with just a bit of rain. A blessing for me, even if my circulation didn't like the sudden change. And now I have a permanent headache because it SHOULD rain and there are always thunderstorms all around, but in our region of all places there has been no rain for days and the clouds hanging heavy over my skull. Well, better than forest fires.
All the best,
Traude
🌸🌿❤️🌿🌸
https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2023/07/costa-rica-14-kapitel-ruckflug-von-osa.html

Shari Burke said...

So sorry about your headache! I used to get weather related headaches myself and they are no fun!

27 is hot for here and when it happens, people tend to be really happy about it at first, but after a few days, they start grumbling. I have noticed that as soon as there is one sunbeam, Irish people tend to be bouncing off the walls with joy--and getting ice cream cones :-)