Wednesday cant come soon enough.

It is forecast to rain! Phew! We sure need it after the last week of exceptionally hot temps. That Europe is in the grasp of a Heat Wave is news all over the world, just as the Wildfires are in Northern Europe, Greece and California are, to name a few. So much devastation!
There has also been a significant Avalanche on Mt Ruapehu, in the middle of the North Island of New Zealand. It has damaged a Chair lift, in the middle of the ski season. NZ has had such horrid weather this winter, and variable skiing conditions. It appears that the world in general is experiencing great shifts in weather.
I guess 40C + is our new norm in summer? And we wanted to live in the 'Sunny Charente'! Well, we might have to make an annual pilgrimage to winter in NZ in August in the future:)

Yesterday morning was glorious, even though it was already hot, before the sun even came up.
The sky was alive with contrails from all the early morning aircraft. This was just after 7am.

 I did a quick jaunt around the garden to see how all the plants were faring. The roses look a bit worse for wear, but are also rather beautiful in their dying days.

 Evelyn was still alive, but she was the only one on the bush that looked half way decent.

 Waz was going to remove the hoop over the top of the seat and attach it to our front gate. Round things on an entry are good Feng Shui, you know! But I think we will clean her up and keep her. The tree is dead, so that will go soon, and we will find another shady spot for the old seat. The table is going also! woot!

 At first I thought this was smoke, but with some more thought I realized it was someone ploughing their field. SO dry and dusty. No wonder everything in the house is covered in fine dust!

 Waz has one load of this pile left to take to the dump site. It has been too hot to get rid of it, so it stays and reminds us of work to do when it is finally cool enough. In the meantime, the rain will add some weight to it, no doubt. We will try to get that concrete up I think. An above ground swimming pool used to sit on this circle of concrete. We have the pool in the garage all folded up, and somehow wish we had it up and running, in this heat.

Along the hedge line of our eastern side is this concrete wall. We cant for the life of us understand why it is there. Our neighbor cant help us, as he has only been here for a year. We might get rid of this also and it will expand the horizon on the lawn, which will make our 1/3 of an acre look even more expansive.

 That dark spot in the foreground is a sizable hole. There are several of them along this line of concrete. We wonder what kind of critter inhabits it?? I'm hoping it isnt a garden snake. They are about!

 Even the umbrella was sagging in the heat. Actually I was attempting to fend off the heat from the pink room this morning. I wasn't successful, because by 8am I already had the shutters closed everywhere. Our brief opening of everything started around 7am, and an hour later I was closing up again. I will start to grow mushrooms soon, I swear. I HATE being in the dark and inside. Two days and I'm almost climbing the walls.

 Yes, the French word for grape is Raisin, but these really look like...well, raisins! what else, lol. I haven't tasted them yet. These are on OUR vine, and we havent been good at spraying them with copper oxide to kill fungus, so we have some interesting looking leaves and grapes. Next year!

So, I'm a little obsessive....and both of us were wow'd by the way the mercury rose at such a pace today. We couldn't believe it.

This weather station is the one out on the fence line at the bottom of the property. Waz only has the best tech gadgets, so this station does everything he wants it to. 

See the 43.8C on the bottom left? That was at 6.40pm (18.40) with 24% humidity! Yes! THAT hot, THAT late in the day. I forgot to take a photo of the 45.8C we saw there at 3.15pm, this afternoon. Believe me, it was stifling out there. It was as if someone had sucked all the oxygen out of the air. I went out to water the tomatoes which were in their death throes at that time and felt as if I was on fire.

 I have lived in Australia and experienced these hot and dry temperatures there. I was a chef at the time and it was hotter outside than it was in the kitchen. We used to go swimming below the restaurant, which was an old bathing pavilion, and it was like swimming in warm soup.

So here we were at 8.15pm just before I opened the doors in the pink room. It was 31.5 INSIDE...and 32.6 outside according to the weather station

 but the humidity level has increased to 40%. Clammy now!

 This clock says 34C inside the pink room....we have plenty of options here! lol

 It was still HOT outside, and the air didn't cool much, even when we went walking at around 9pm. The temp gauge at the front door, which is always the coolest place,  at 8.30pm said....

 31C, as witnessed on my watch, below.

I know it is hard to believe these temps, but I dont think I have ever been so hot outside. Not even in Aussie, where we used to lie on the floor not moving in 42C, with jugs of water around us and wet cloths on our brows.

However....We did get some work done today.
I eventually left the obsessive looking at temperatures and clocks and went upstairs to open some more cartons. I cant get near my sewing table, so it was imperative that I make a start. I moved the fan from the guest room to just inside the door and turned it on my person while I went down memory lane with family photos et al.

What fun to look back at when the kids were little, our neighbors and us lived at each other's houses and were part of each other's families. Precious times and memories, and I marvel at the fun and funny little boys my two were.
Lots of certificates, framed and unframed bear testament to accomplishments earned at school and beyond. I will post them when they are more settled in their lives and they want them as part of their own history.
Artwork galore that I have kept since the year dot. I will photograph it all as I have nowhere to store it all now. I am going to scan all the photos and eventually make my boys a book of their lives, each. A good winter thing to do?

We hate to heat the oven up as it heats the whole house up, but today's duck needed to be cooked. Good thing it heated fast and we enjoyed that for dinner with a salad. Too hot to eat too much.

We went for a short walk down the rows of vines opposite the house, this evening, but it was still warm. A quick tour of the property with some vine pulling was about all the activity that took place.
We enjoyed a cup of tea sitting on the entry terrace in the increasing cool, with the front door thermometer just below 30C. The windows in the bedroom are open, but it is hard to get rid of the heat. We will just lie very still, tonight:)

It is getting dark earlier now. At just after 10pm the light is gone and now there are a glorious array of stars out there. The sky has been so clear, and we have delighted at standing at our bedroom window and looking out at all our twinkling neighbors.

Time to turn in. No nap today, so I think I'm ready for a kip! I managed to finish another book yesterday, and now have a new one to take to bed with me ...and Waz of course:)
Night, night.