Sometimes on the weather forecast on television they show photos of the continent as seen, I presume, from a plane or a satellite. Great swirls of cloud are shown to be moving in on different parts of Europe, leaving some places completely clear and covering others, usually the UK, with impending gloom. Well, the other evening our sunset looked rather like that it seems as if a huge swathe of cloud was being generated, out just beyond the Islas Cíes and making its threatening way inland. Even the colours were appropriate. After all, the weathermen also show us colour-coded maps: oranges and reds indicating hot areas and greens no blues for the cooler places. Whether or not that cloud brought in a different weather pattern, rolling it in like the mist that comes up the estuary on occasion, the temperatures have fallen. There is no longer a wall of heat awaiting you when you step outside. The kind of thing that hits you when you step off the plane, for example, in Malaga. My weather-witch bread lady tells me that it will be cooler and even rainy over the weekend. We shall see. Not much we can do about it anyway. I still don't think the drop to 20 degrees really merits the coats and scarves I have seen on children and mothers in the school run this morning though. Different attitudes!
It's a strange phenomenon of relatively cooler weather that the water in the swimming pool feels warmer than it does when the weather is baking hot. Scientists would probably tell me that it's all to do with your skin temperature and stuff like that. All I know is that it was very pleasant in the pool, not because it cooled you down but because the water was good to swim in. I was the only one there this morning. As I said, different attitudes. No doubt it is too cold for the locals to go and swim. Not that many of them swim any distance. Not that I have seen anyway. They probably think I am slightly mad as I do circuits of the pool. It is rather too short to talk about doing lengths but if the pool is empty you can do circuits and swim quite a distance without stopping, once again I am reminded of the dormouse in Alice in Wonderland, swimming in circles is a sea of Alice's tears.
Out in the bay late this morning one of the orange tug boats was sending fountains of water up into the air in quite a spectacular fashion. The first time I saw them do this was several years ago when the tall ships race had a stop off in Vigo and the tug boats honoured their arrival with a watery display. Today there didn't seem to be any reason for it. Maybe they just have to test the system from time to time. Somehow I don't think the ability to do this is just so that they can make a pretty display. It must be used for things like putting out fires on boats and so on.
After lunch I decided to walk out in the wind and go up to the Castro. It's still there, where it always was. The views are still rather fine. They appear to have extended the cafe bar by opening a kind of roof terrace, although it was closed today. I usually like to go in through the main entrance, through a sort of tunnel, the extent of which demonstrates just how thick the walls are, and then out by a gate on the other side through what look as though they might have been stables at one time. That gate was not just closed but barricaded and there were supports holding the roof of the gateway up. I hope it isn't in serious danger of falling down. If that is the case, I hope they spend some money putting it right. That would seem to me a much better use of public funds than making a flower bed down the middle of our road!!!
I must keep an eye on progress there.
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