Beautiful weather

The weather is being absolutely glorious at the moment - it's only 15°C in the shade, but as I'm not in the shade I'm there with the lizards absorbing the warmth.

The upside of a south-facing yard in front of the house is that it's like a giant radiator: at the moment, when the sun is shining, the temperature rises to just over 30°C in the sun, and the heating can stay off even though the night time temps are dropping to around freezing.

[Of course, the downside of a south-facing yard in front of the house is that it's like a giant radiator: when it's 30°C in the shade, the thermometer only goes up to 53°C, so I can't tell how hot it is out there; once the mercury has risen above the scale how does one tell the temperature?

But that is something to worry about later in the season/next year/whenever, as it's still a case of 'let's-open-the-windows-and-let-the-warmth-in' warm rather than 'don't-open-the-windows-or-even-the-shutters-in-case-it-lets-in-the-heat' hot.]

We were talking to Mme Koza and Olivier, and he said that he'd woken up in the early hours of Wednesday morning and seen the heaters out in the vineyards. I think when Mme Koza was woken up to see this she was less than delighted; I'm guessing in the twenty-or-so years that she's lived in the house she has witnessed that a few times!

I wish I'd seen it though: apparently there is a layer of black smog that blankets where the chaufferettes are located; it would have contrasted beautifully with the layer of white frost that covered the ground when I woke up at 6.30. I'm not sure they are legal; the pollution is clearly visible, and they are always tucked out of sight however early I wake up.

I think they only do it when the new leaves are starting; from what I understood of Olivier's explanation, the vines only break into growth once, so if checked by frost that's your season ruined in one night. It's quite odd having days that feel like an English summer's day with almost all the greenery in full new leaf (or well on the way), and the vines are still barren-looking.

Our horse chestnut tree is fully out and about to burst into flower, but the walnuts are still completely naked of leaves; perhaps they follow the same calendar as the vines?

Anyway, I'm off to bask with my lacertilian friends [although to keep up the conventions, I will call it "weeding"]; hope you can enjoy some lovely weather, too, wherever you are.