No Country for Cold Men

The fur and the clothing aspects of the poem were only included for whimsical purposes.

Thanks for reading it. 

Our house was built in Ottoman times, predating the Commies by best part of a century. The downstairs bit has stone walls 40 centimetres thick so it's cooler there than anywhere else outside the fridge, but still a bit warm. We've got air conditioning but the constant hum is irritating and when we use it we need to keep the doors and windows closed, much to the annoyance of our animals.

We don't have an inner courtyard. I've never been to Malta but I've stayed in a place built that way in Marrakech and it was very cool in more ways than one. We do have several shady places to retire to but even in the shade the temperature has topped 40° the last few afternoons. We have weather like this every summer but not usually for this long. I think it's been 30° or more just about every day since late April.

To tell the truth, I quite like it as long as I'm not expected to do anything that involves effort or movement. But Priyatelkata's struggling a bit, though not as much as our poor garden that's been having an awful year.

And there's a good chance that four months from now we'll be under a metre of snow.

We're going to Crete next month Jenny. Apparently it's much cooler there. 

Thanks for reading and joining in the rhythm. I hope you get your rhythm back soon. I'm looking forward to hearing that you're back to your old self.

Tell me where you live CM and I'll put some degrees in the post to you. We've got stacks of the hot little beauties.

It's cooler by the sea... and I'll be going in three weeks.

Oh I do like to be beside the Aegean seaside!

I did indeed see wind catchers in Iran. Mostly in the city of Yaz'd. I mentioned them in a thing I wrote for ABC (Razzmatazzed in Yaz’d) but that was a long time ago now. And although I'm not an expert on Persian architecture, I'm fairly sure their houses are built around the wind catchers so we'd have to knock ours down and start again and it's a lot of faffing about really, especially in on a hot day.

Also there needs to be some wind to catch, and we have none at the moment.

Also they catch the wind all year round and we might not be up for that in February.

The long range weather forecast is predicting that our next rain will be on 15 September. I've written it in my diary and cancelled all other engagements so I don't miss it. 

You might get an Indian summer in Scotland. My fingers are crossed for you.

Thanks very much Di, we'll struggle on.

I hope all's well with you and yours.

I was already a conspiracy theorist (well I suspect that's what the authorities were saying about me) when I arrived here so I fit in well with our hot summers most of the time. England's grey days always got to me a bit so the wall to wall sunshine, even in the freeziest depths of winter, is right up my alley.

Ah, the Balti Pie. I had my very first one round about 1998 when I went to see Bath City (my local team for 20 years) playing away at Halesowen Town. A dreadful match but one of my most memorable footballing moments.

I know what you mean about Suzi's bum and the passage of time (whoops, an accidental bum pun) but I don't know any modern day bums. It would have been even worse if I'd said Ena Sharples.

We had a totally unpredicted thunderstorm a couple of days ago, which eased matters slightly. As we were sitting in the car waiting for the downpour to ease off a bit so we could dash into the house, the weather app on my phone was telling me that we currently had big blue cloudless skies. Michael Fish is alive and well and living in Veliko Tarnovo. 

I quite liked Suzi Quatro. But please don't tell Dusty Springfield because I loved her, despite everything.