Great news LVER. I once lived on the 14th floor of a city centre block of flats (back before Thatcher got her mitts on council housing), it was great. Enjoy catching up with your family too.
I hope the move goes well LVER and that your family doesn't get under each other's feet. - I have heard that Parisian apartments can be un peu bijou (a bit small).
Fab stuff La Vie. Hoping to follow you in spirit soon, as the bank have approved my mortgage (subject to survey). Solicitors have got the draft contract and deeds.
Excellent news all round - best of luck to the Rouges with Rouge Heights and to Sipech with Sipech Castle!
We had some fairly heavy rain earlier this morning - enough that we could hear it on the roof - but if the forecast's right it was only a dress rehearsal for what we're getting tonight and tomorrow. They're talking about an inch or possibly two, which in technical terms is Quite A Lot.
I'm sure this has nothing whatsoever to do with my having painted my toenails so that open-toed sandals would look nice.
I've been sitting here for an hour or so, reading e-mails and checking out the Ship, and our resident squirrel has spent the entire time chomping away at the bird-feeder; I reckon it was about a quarter full when I came through, and now it's empty. No wonder the grackles are looking a bit pissed-off!
I hope the move goes well LVER and that your family doesn't get under each other's feet. - I have heard that Parisian apartments can be un peu bijou (a bit small).
I think living in a place like Paris (or Hong Kong, or wherever…) for an extended length of time gives you a different perspective on this. You learn to live in the smaller space and not clutter it up with unnecessary crap. By Parisian standards our places is enormous (70 m²). This sounds tiny to many people, but to the average Parisian it’s almost palatial.
My first studio apartment was 12 m². It was very well organised - folding table, folding sofa bed - and for one person it was actually fine.
D. gave his last recital of the season today; over the summer there's a series of lunchtime concerts in the Cathedral that's been going every summer for years, with musicians from all over the place. D's actually doing the one the week after next, as the group that was booked had to pull out, but the rest will be all sorts of things from folk to jazz to classical.
It's a dreich, wet, miserable day here: first day of summer, my hat! Forecast to be quite nice over the weekend though, which bodes well for the picnic lunch planned at the Cathedral on Sunday (after a joint service instead of the three usual ones).
Currently sitting in full Tudor gear ready to go off to Kentwell Hall and live in a 1588 wool shed for the day. I’m wearing:
Calf length white linen shift with pleated collar and cuffs
White linen coif (head cap to cover my hair which is plaited and coiled round my head)
Canary yellow wool hose held up with white linen ribbons
Linen bodice (reed lined) with scarlet petticoat (virtually all Tudor women wear red petticoats)
Lincoln green kirtle (dress) laced at front with detachable sleeves (easier to work in)
Brown wool apron
Black leather belt with small purse, cotton pomander filled with lavender and a pretty bone handled knife in leather sheath
Brown leather plain shoes
Tawny brown gown and mid green flat bonnet to wear out and my willow basket to carry my wool, drop spindle and wooden dinner plate and spoon.
I haven’t spun in ages so had to have a practice yesterday. Husband is working at the coppice as usual, carving wood on a pole lathe.
@Heavenlyannie You sound absolutely gorgeous! I do hope the weather stays reasonably cool for you.
Agreed!
In the same vein, and hopefully a vein not of the exploding kind: We have a severe weather warning in place for next week, where there'll be temperatures of... up to 37 degrees C!!
This is unheard of for June in this neck of the Continental Woods. What is worse, the warning even appears to be generalised for extended parts of the European mainland, and probably the UK as well. France might have up to 40C. FFS!!
When I grew up, I expected a lot of things to happen when I got older, like being blown to smithereens by Soviet missiles. But one thing I definitely wasn't expecting, was overall changing weather patterns and global warming! - I feel somehow totally unprepared, mentally, moi!
Worry ye not: I've got all the necessary items in the meantime, after the experience of the last few years, like several fans, plenty of water, a cool, fully functioning, nicely stocked fridge-freezer, and even a cooling vest - which you can put into cold water for a few minutes, have the extra water drop off, and put on - the surface is waterrepellant, so you're nice and dry and cool for a couple of hours.
Poor planet earth.
Today, at least, it is overcast with occasional drizzle, with about 23C 'only' this Saturday, but Sunday should be 28C... and rising. And I am so NOT looking forward to this!
I'm in the UK too, and dreading the forthcoming weather. I'd never heard of cooling vests before, and will definitely be investigating them! They sound pretty amazing. Does yours work quite well?
Well, that ice cube string thingy might work for home, and will probably be a bit messy.
Cooling vests, on the other hand, are designed for people who do outside sports during hot spells, or who have to work outside then. One random link I've found is here.
The one I have is a TechNiche Hyperkewl vest which works with evaporation, and which really cools you done for several hours, perhaps more than 4 or 5. I was amazed! - I was able to try in on before purchase, though, at a sports physiotherapy outlet, and they advised me on a rather tight-fitting size. They also warned me against wearing it on cooler days, as it will really cool you down, to the extent that you might even begin to feel cold!
In my experience, with this one, you can actually wear a t-shirt on top, and while this may get some minor humid patches from the vest, to me it's not a big deal, compared to the cleary improved quality of life when it's scorching.
Thank you - those links were helpful. I have been checking out the cooling vests. I think I will definitely get one of these, though probably a different brand. What a wonderful introduction. I detest the heat, and these things sound perfect for me....
Came back home very tired after an enjoyable day talking to the public and my fellow spinsters. Now relaxing with a cup of tea and will be heading back again in the morning.
I watched, and enjoyed it. I had earlier watched The Portrait Artist of The Year, but Mr RoS was not happy with 3hours of kultchur on a Saturday evening and went to sulk in the spare room watching the little telly - probably sport of some kind.
I did enjoy the winner's voice, but that was not my favourite performance.
My first thought was how hot Heavenlyannie would be - I wouldn't relish all those layers in a south-of-England summer! They had a bit of a cool spell in Tudor times, didn't they? - a sort of mini ice age with the Thames freezing over - that might explain the clothes.
It's a warm, slightly breezy day here although I haven't done anything to take advantage of it. One of the ladies in the choir is at the printing stage of a PhD thesis, and has asked me to help with formatting it, so she had us round for lunch so I could pick up the draft. I'm going to be busy - she needs it in about a week, and I'm not sure that the system it was originally typed in (Word) and the one on the computer in D's office (Word Perfect) are as compatible as they might be. The pagination seems to be playing silly-buggers, so I may need to find a computer with Word on it, or the table of contents won't agree with the pages.
Re. Cardiff Singer: We woz there! Didn't agree with the judges' choice though: we liked the Chinese tenor and the American bass. The tenor's Mozart aria was sublime. We felt the soprano - wonderful though she is - had been better in the heat (which we watched on TV).
My first thought was how hot Heavenlyannie would be - I wouldn't relish all those layers in a south-of-England summer! They had a bit of a cool spell in Tudor times, didn't they? - a sort of mini ice age with the Thames freezing over - that might explain the clothes.
Yes, they had a cool spell. The buildings were also draughty with little in the way of heating so buildings generally stay cooler even on sunny days as they never warm up well. The wool shed I am in is an overcroft like a raised barn so cold and draughty and the doors are kept open for the breeze. At Easter events it is freezing cold.
But it was warm yesterday walking out on the manor and very comfortable in the wool shed. Certainly not gown needed over my kirtle.
Great to get some insights about Tudor times and habits (wordplay intended), Heavenlyannie! I watched this BBC documentary, called 'Hidden Dangers of the Todur Home', which I found quite remarkable.
In other news, the Great Heat is arriving today, and after some nice thunderstorms and showers last night, which I quite enjoyed, it is beginning to gradually get rather warm, 21C at 11am, forecast 28C later. - I got up early and did some of the ironing that really had to be done.
Starting to batten down the hatches, i.e. closing the shutters at least during daytime, already in the late morning. So we'll see how that goes. I may yet have to resort to ingurgitating the ice water that Moo spoketh of!
The Guide camp went well and we had glorious weather. I took up 45 friendship bracelet kits in the morning, checked when I was needed in the afternoon, to help keep cars moving when the Brownies and Rainbows came and went, then went up again in the evening clutching my bat detector.
The bat detector was a hit, as were the friendship bracelet packs I put together, but I ended up handing over the bat detector to someone else so I could teach friendship bracelets and I'm not sure they did a particularly good job as I ended up walking around with an American Guide leader trying to find bats for her to hear. It's a heterodyne detector that changes the echolocation into audible sounds.
Brilliant walk up and down, seeing (and photographing) a dragonfly on one return journey and hearing bats on my way home. (It's over a mile each way to walk up to the Guide leader's house where the camp was held, walking over the fields.)
Re: Tudor chill... I lived in London briefly over the winter of 2011-12, in a house built ca. 1850*. No central heating. I awoke most mornings to the sight of my breath. I slept with a brandy by my side (yes - I know the physiological argument against that) and wore shirt, sweater/jumper, and tweed in the house. I like the cold, but, Brrrrrr....
*Yesyesyes... I know that the Tudors were not the dynasty in 1850.
Don't know where the Great Heat has got to! It says its is 20 here, but we have a brisk easterly wind at 22 knots, which makes it feel rather chilly. Maybe it will improve during the week? Although not if this wind continues.
We are due ... 38° by Thursday and no lower than 26° overnight. Good grief.
"Good grief" is about right. We had a couple of nights last summer when it didn't go below about 18° and they were very uncomfortable - I don't want to even contemplate overnight lows of 26°.
It's a glorious day here: 23° but with a light northerly breeze and no humidity to speak of - absolutely perfect for the picnic lunch* we had on the Cathedral green after the joint morning service.
Then home for a bit of Quality Bear Time™, and back in the afternoon for an ordination (followed, naturally, by more FOOD).
Now relaxing with a white wine spritzer - cheers!
* hot dogs, slices of watermelon (v. refreshing) and CAKE, since you ask
PS @Doone - can Glastonbury actually happen if it isn't p*ssing with rain? ☔
Then don't even think of visiting the Phoenix area for about half the year.
Ah, but in Phoenix you have the bliss of air conditioning. Here we lie in bed in muggy rooms, tossing and turning. Even if we have a fan (as I do), there comes a stage where you are just whooshing the hot air around.
Saturday here was sunny, yesterday was cloudy and breezy, today is cloudy, windy and damp.
What heatwave?
According to a report I watched yesterday our weather this week will be due to The Spanish Plume which gives me a picture of a giant feather overshadowing the UK. What it actually means is that very hot air from Spain will be driven over us by southerly winds and encounter cold air surrounding an area of low pressure sitting to the west of us in the Atlantic. Very high temperatures and thunderstorms will be the result.
Comments
We had some fairly heavy rain earlier this morning - enough that we could hear it on the roof - but if the forecast's right it was only a dress rehearsal for what we're getting tonight and tomorrow. They're talking about an inch or possibly two, which in technical terms is Quite A Lot.
I'm sure this has nothing whatsoever to do with my having painted my toenails so that open-toed sandals would look nice.
I've been sitting here for an hour or so, reading e-mails and checking out the Ship, and our resident squirrel has spent the entire time chomping away at the bird-feeder; I reckon it was about a quarter full when I came through, and now it's empty. No wonder the grackles are looking a bit pissed-off!
I think living in a place like Paris (or Hong Kong, or wherever…) for an extended length of time gives you a different perspective on this. You learn to live in the smaller space and not clutter it up with unnecessary crap. By Parisian standards our places is enormous (70 m²). This sounds tiny to many people, but to the average Parisian it’s almost palatial.
My first studio apartment was 12 m². It was very well organised - folding table, folding sofa bed - and for one person it was actually fine.
I'm not certain how I should interpret that....
It's a dreich, wet, miserable day here: first day of summer, my hat! Forecast to be quite nice over the weekend though, which bodes well for the picnic lunch planned at the Cathedral on Sunday (after a joint service instead of the three usual ones).
Calf length white linen shift with pleated collar and cuffs
White linen coif (head cap to cover my hair which is plaited and coiled round my head)
Canary yellow wool hose held up with white linen ribbons
Linen bodice (reed lined) with scarlet petticoat (virtually all Tudor women wear red petticoats)
Lincoln green kirtle (dress) laced at front with detachable sleeves (easier to work in)
Brown wool apron
Black leather belt with small purse, cotton pomander filled with lavender and a pretty bone handled knife in leather sheath
Brown leather plain shoes
Tawny brown gown and mid green flat bonnet to wear out and my willow basket to carry my wool, drop spindle and wooden dinner plate and spoon.
I haven’t spun in ages so had to have a practice yesterday. Husband is working at the coppice as usual, carving wood on a pole lathe.
In the same vein, and hopefully a vein not of the exploding kind: We have a severe weather warning in place for next week, where there'll be temperatures of... up to 37 degrees C!!
This is unheard of for June in this neck of the Continental Woods. What is worse, the warning even appears to be generalised for extended parts of the European mainland, and probably the UK as well. France might have up to 40C. FFS!!
When I grew up, I expected a lot of things to happen when I got older, like being blown to smithereens by Soviet missiles. But one thing I definitely wasn't expecting, was overall changing weather patterns and global warming! - I feel somehow totally unprepared, mentally, moi!
Worry ye not: I've got all the necessary items in the meantime, after the experience of the last few years, like several fans, plenty of water, a cool, fully functioning, nicely stocked fridge-freezer, and even a cooling vest - which you can put into cold water for a few minutes, have the extra water drop off, and put on - the surface is waterrepellant, so you're nice and dry and cool for a couple of hours.
Poor planet earth.
Today, at least, it is overcast with occasional drizzle, with about 23C 'only' this Saturday, but Sunday should be 28C... and rising. And I am so NOT looking forward to this!
Sorry for the rant.
Drape string through an ice cube tray, freeze cubes around it then wear as cooling necklace.
Cooling vests, on the other hand, are designed for people who do outside sports during hot spells, or who have to work outside then. One random link I've found is here.
The one I have is a TechNiche Hyperkewl vest which works with evaporation, and which really cools you done for several hours, perhaps more than 4 or 5. I was amazed! - I was able to try in on before purchase, though, at a sports physiotherapy outlet, and they advised me on a rather tight-fitting size. They also warned me against wearing it on cooler days, as it will really cool you down, to the extent that you might even begin to feel cold!
In my experience, with this one, you can actually wear a t-shirt on top, and while this may get some minor humid patches from the vest, to me it's not a big deal, compared to the cleary improved quality of life when it's scorching.
I feel next week may be different. You’ll find me under a cool shower all day!
Perhaps a water birth might be called for?
(IANAD, BTW!)
Thank you - those links were helpful. I have been checking out the cooling vests. I think I will definitely get one of these, though probably a different brand. What a wonderful introduction. I detest the heat, and these things sound perfect for me....
I blame the image of feverish-hot days to come!
Glad if my experience is of any use! There are wonderful gadgets out there, for sure.
Nah, the fence is broken and I’m not keen on having an audience!
Have a wonderful time until then, JennyAnn, and a good delivery when it's time to join the labour party! All the best!
I watched, and enjoyed it. I had earlier watched The Portrait Artist of The Year, but Mr RoS was not happy with 3hours of kultchur on a Saturday evening and went to sulk in the spare room watching the little telly - probably sport of some kind.
I did enjoy the winner's voice, but that was not my favourite performance.
It's a warm, slightly breezy day here although I haven't done anything to take advantage of it. One of the ladies in the choir is at the printing stage of a PhD thesis, and has asked me to help with formatting it, so she had us round for lunch so I could pick up the draft. I'm going to be busy - she needs it in about a week, and I'm not sure that the system it was originally typed in (Word) and the one on the computer in D's office (Word Perfect) are as compatible as they might be. The pagination seems to be playing silly-buggers, so I may need to find a computer with Word on it, or the table of contents won't agree with the pages.
Yes, they had a cool spell. The buildings were also draughty with little in the way of heating so buildings generally stay cooler even on sunny days as they never warm up well. The wool shed I am in is an overcroft like a raised barn so cold and draughty and the doors are kept open for the breeze. At Easter events it is freezing cold.
But it was warm yesterday walking out on the manor and very comfortable in the wool shed. Certainly not gown needed over my kirtle.
In other news, the Great Heat is arriving today, and after some nice thunderstorms and showers last night, which I quite enjoyed, it is beginning to gradually get rather warm, 21C at 11am, forecast 28C later. - I got up early and did some of the ironing that really had to be done.
Starting to batten down the hatches, i.e. closing the shutters at least during daytime, already in the late morning. So we'll see how that goes. I may yet have to resort to ingurgitating the ice water that Moo spoketh of!
ETA: Latest forecast: 38 degrees C on Thursday...
Wishing everyone a nice and blesséd Sunday!
The bat detector was a hit, as were the friendship bracelet packs I put together, but I ended up handing over the bat detector to someone else so I could teach friendship bracelets and I'm not sure they did a particularly good job as I ended up walking around with an American Guide leader trying to find bats for her to hear. It's a heterodyne detector that changes the echolocation into audible sounds.
Brilliant walk up and down, seeing (and photographing) a dragonfly on one return journey and hearing bats on my way home. (It's over a mile each way to walk up to the Guide leader's house where the camp was held, walking over the fields.)
*Yesyesyes... I know that the Tudors were not the dynasty in 1850.
The family have made it safely and my brother has gained his pushchair licence.
Forecast is for heavy, thundery, rain this coming week. O Deep Joy...
*sings*
In July the sun is hot! Is it shining? No, it's not!
Ah well, it's Good For The Garden ..... I put the outdoor chairs and table back in the shed.
"Good grief" is about right. We had a couple of nights last summer when it didn't go below about 18° and they were very uncomfortable - I don't want to even contemplate overnight lows of 26°.
It's a glorious day here: 23° but with a light northerly breeze and no humidity to speak of - absolutely perfect for the picnic lunch* we had on the Cathedral green after the joint morning service.
Then home for a bit of Quality Bear Time™, and back in the afternoon for an ordination (followed, naturally, by more FOOD).
Now relaxing with a white wine spritzer - cheers!
* hot dogs, slices of watermelon (v. refreshing) and CAKE, since you ask
PS @Doone - can Glastonbury actually happen if it isn't p*ssing with rain? ☔
Then don't even think of visiting the Phoenix area for about half the year.
Ah, but in Phoenix you have the bliss of air conditioning. Here we lie in bed in muggy rooms, tossing and turning. Even if we have a fan (as I do), there comes a stage where you are just whooshing the hot air around.
What heatwave?
According to a report I watched yesterday our weather this week will be due to The Spanish Plume which gives me a picture of a giant feather overshadowing the UK. What it actually means is that very hot air from Spain will be driven over us by southerly winds and encounter cold air surrounding an area of low pressure sitting to the west of us in the Atlantic. Very high temperatures and thunderstorms will be the result.
You're welcome.