Weather or not

Here in Poitou-Charentes the weather has been unseasonably hot and dry. As the French say,c`est pas normale  a blanket condemnation of what they`re not used to. But in fact, the weather has not been vastly different from what I remember from when we first bought this house in 1990. We used to call settled, summer weather `boring old Deux Sèvres weather` when the days dawned blue and sunny each morning and you could plan a picnic or a walk without the proviso `if it`s dry`  It would be most of the time. You can normally count on sunny weather up till 15th August when the summer storms start. The heat builds over three days, then a spectacular thunderstorm clears the air and the the cycle restarts.
   Problem is, the weather pattern this year, though normal enough, has started much earlier in the year. As I write, the sky is the colour of a bruise over our buildings and the thunder is frightening Laika, who has a `French` attitude to thunder.We have had two heavy rainshowers this morning, which must have exasperated the farmer whom I met this morning in a nearby lane driving his tractor equipped with a hay turner. It`s the first rain for weeks, and coming the day after he has cut his hay I don`t suppose he`s pleased. I`m pleased with a good soak for our potager but it does nothing much for the water table as much evaporates or drains off., and the local water boards are making threats to ban watering, car washing and swimming pool refilling. A sensible precaution of course but not much comfort for farmers with young crops and amateurs of kitchen gardens which will fail to crop if they cannot be watered. To say nothing of the people with empty swimming pools.
  The effects of thunder on our animals varies wildly. The cats ignore it and so do Jilly and Toffe two of the dogs. Laika is terrified, running to and fro and needing to be comforted all the time.At present she is in her sleeping cage in the corner of the room, not such a silly idea when you come to think of it, the Farraday Cage effect would protect her from a lightning strike!
  I have a make-shift system of water-storage for the garden, a 45 gallon drum which catches water from the barn roof and overflows into a water butt. It fills well in a shower, it`s running over now, but it pales beside that of our Loubillé neighbours Jacqui and Adrian Brown (no relative). They have converted the old slurry tank beneath their former farm building to hold huge quantities of water. See their site The  French Village Diaries which I can thoroughly recommend. I have been threatening for ages to build a block storage tank with a pool-liner and if summers go on being dry I shall have to bite the bullet and build it. Then at least our potager can be legally watered `in the dry`
   See you soon!