Archive Article: 2000/05/19
HURRAH for hefty hubbies! Sitting in the kitchen in the middle of last week I was really cold. In spite of a very promising weekend, the weather quickly changed back to cold, grey autumnal climes and I was glad of Tims baggy cardie for comfort.
Who forgot to let the spring out?
By Friday we were back to a heat-wave and Tim was champing at the bit wanting to get the ploughing and maize drilling done; it has been too wet to work the fields. The contractors came out to start the maize but very soon after broke down and it was three hours or more before they got going again, by which time the skies had darkened, clouds gathered overhead and thunder and lightning was homing in. At 10pm when Tim went out to his office to unplug the phone and computer, lightning bounced off the garden gate in front of him.
The only furrows being made at the moment are those etched in Timothys forehead.
Its 2am that same night. Tim wakes to find a space in the bed beside him.
"Hello?" he says.
"Hello," says a voice from the bathroom.
There are no lights on.
"What are you doing?" he says.
"I dont like it," says the voice from the bathroom.
"Its all right, dont be daft. Look, Ill roll over by the window, you get in this side."
"No, its all right, Ill stay here a bit."
"Okay. Snore…"
I sat in the bathroom for half an hour but the lightning didnt ease up at all. It was flashing on and off over the house for an hour. I must be getting old, I dont like it but Ive never been so disturbed by it before. It may have something to do with the fact that our house looks a bit like a Christmas tree at the moment. We have shredded strips of aluminium paper threaded on baler twine stretched across the top of our windows as a deterrent to the house martins nesting. Would this attract lightning to the windows? What idiotic ideas go through your mind when your sleep is disturbed. Well anyway, after half an hour in the bathroom, in the alternative dark and very light, and not having a cosy cardie to hand, I crept back into my, now cold, side of the bed and slept.
That was Friday, it is now Monday and there is no change to the story, we are all still having very close temperatures alternating with rain and occasional thunder. Tres strange.
Without wishing to upset anyone, and before pen goes to paper, I must say we are compromising with our feathery friends this year. I dont want nests in my bedroom, bathroom or kitchen windows, and so far the aluminium decorations are being effective. However, my daughters are not as cold-hearted as me and I have promised to clean all the mess from their bedroom, bathroom and the lounge windows in September, so they neednt go completely homeless.
Twenty-seven nests, I feel, was a little excessive.
On strike… lightning strike alert, that is. Chrissie wonders what happened to the hot weather.