Yesterday was one of the hottest days we've had this summer. According to Accuweather, seven other days in August 2018 have been hotter — but only by a degree or two or three. The temperature hit 33ºC yesterday afternoon. I had a pretty miserable walk with Tasha between five and six o'clock. The sun was scorchingly hot, and I tried to stay in the shade as much as I could... which wasn't much, considering I'm walking in a vineyard.
It's ironic that we took delivery of our firewood for the winter yesterday afternoon, on such a hot day. The man who delivers it, Monsieur Duval, owns the Entreprise Duval firewood business that's in the village called Vallières-les-Grandes, up near Chaumont-sur-Loire. I had called him a couple of days ago, and 48 hours later, there was the wood, all four cubic meters of it, cut into approximately foot-long pieces.
Here's what the house looks like on hot afternoons. (The ºF equivalent of 33ºC is 92.) Without air-conditioning, the only way we can survive the heat is to close all the shutters on the west side of the house. The Velux skylight windows in the roof have roll-down blackout shades that we also close. We have a big extractor fan in the loft to try to pull cooler air into the room. Fortunately, I guess, we have only one window in the south side of the house, and it's made of glass blocks. We close a heavy curtain over it to keep the heat out.
I got up at five this morning, as is usual these days, and opened as many windows and shutters as I could to let in cooler morning air. Today is supposed to be a degree or two less hot than yesterday. And then the temperature is supposed to drop radically over the weekend, with a high of 23ºC on Friday and only 18ºC on Saturday. That's low 70s to mid-60s in ºF. It's bound to feel cold — good weather for stacking a cord of firewood. I hope the predicted rain isn't too cold for the tomatoes that are still ripening in the vegetable garden.
Gracious, that sounds hot. I'm glad you're in for a cool down. So many extremes!
ReplyDeleteFrance is on a weather border between England and North Africa. When the southern weather moves a little bit north, it turns hot here. The suddenly the line between the wet, chilly north and the hot, dry south moves down, and we're back with that British weather pattern. So yes, the weather can change radically in a day or two. Maybe that's true in many if not most places. Being gardeners and walking the dog every day, plus not having AC, makes us very conscious of weather patterns and events. At least we seldom have blizzards, hurricanes, or tornadoes.
DeleteThe chard is obviously not happy with the weather either. Hopefully you can cut it back, and once cooler temps roll in it will give you some nice new growth.
ReplyDeleteYou're right, the chard is suffering. We expect rain on Saturday, and maybe slightly milder temperatures next week and into September. The chard (and the kale) might rebound if all that comes about.
DeleteWhat odd weather! I guess it would be too much trouble to load the dog in the car and walk on a shady path somewhere. We hose Cathy's dog down before walks which helps a lot. Bon courage...
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Natasha would like being hosed down. Morning walks are a pleasure but afternoon walks have been grueling. Today is not so hot, so Walt and Tasha will probable enjoy theirs this evening.
DeleteI hope you don't mind me asking but we have a 'Maison secondaire' in the Sarthe and its been a few years since I bought any firewood. Just wondering what sort of price you paid for your 'cord' please?. Many thanks. andy
ReplyDeleteWe paid 264 euros for 4 stères (cubic meters) of oak logs cut to 33 cm length for our little stove. Logs cut to 40 cm, 50 cm, or 100 cm long are a little less expensive.
DeleteMany thanks Ken.
DeleteDon't you wish you could "can" some of that heat for opening in the cold dead of Winter!
ReplyDeleteReally. You just have to learn to take what you get when it comes to the weather here. We were spoiled after living in San Francisco for nearly 20 years. Weather there was less variable. The high in SF yesterday was 67ºF (19ºC), which pretty much corresponds to the historical average there for the date, according to Accuweather. Problem in SF is the fog and damp, with so little sunshine in summertime in most neighborhoods. Micro-climates...
DeleteWhat was it Mark Twain said? Something like: The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.
DeleteAs for mico-climates, I think the first time I ever became aware of that concept was decades ago when visiting San Francisco. Someone we knew who lived there talked about the different micro-climates in different neighborhoods.
"The temperature hit 33ºF yesterday afternoon." That's a pretty chilly high:-)
ReplyDeleteI like the look of that wood. Especially the size of the pieces. Do you think he might deliver to Maine?
Thanks for the copy editing, Bob. Maybe you could get Blogger to hire you to start up an editing department. It's sorely needed. I doubt that M. Duval's tractor could make the trip to Maine. And the Trump tariffs on his wood would be prohibitively high anyway.
DeleteYes, none of that foreign wood, except for the Christmas trees that come down from Quebec.
Delete92 degrees is pretty toasty in any area, especially without air conditioning. How is your humidity there? Hopefully you get the cool down you're looking for.
ReplyDeleteWe got a taste of life without A/C when the power went out over a large area here last night. We were just below 90 and 60% humidity.
Our humidity is in the 60% range as well. The hot air here comes up from Morocco and Spain, so it's pretty dry most of the time — when we get it. Tomorrow humidity is supposed to be very high but temperatures will be in the 60s, because of rain.
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