The vagaries of weather.

As summer appears to be getting into gear here and I am making a dip in the pool a part of my regular health and fitness routine, I hear odd reports about weather in other parts of Europe. In Paris there has been torrential rain and the river Seine keeps rising, giving rise to fears that the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay could be flooded. Indeed the Louvre shut its doors to the public the other day so that they could move artworks to a place of greater safety; presumably that means upstairs! 

Meanwhile, south of Paris and in the Loire Valley riverside homes have been evacuated, moving thousands of people out. People are as valuable as artworks. That's reassuring. In Germany eight people have died because of flooding. Pictures of roofs of cars sticking up out of the sludge left behind by overflowing rivers have appeared in newspapers. Maybe some of the climate change denying people will have to change their minds. 

For the moment, however, the rain seems to have left us here in Galicia and the girls, and some of the boys, are out by the pool working in their tan! The pool is not yet at full pelt yet, however. Schools have not yet broken up for the summer so during the day there are no children around. And for some, indeed many, locals it needs to be a good deal hotter before they get into the water. Once a heatwave hits you see people, returning home from work for lunch, taking a quick dip to refresh and spending no more than five or ten minutes poolside. 

All of this suits me fine. I have the pool mostly to myself and can do as many leisurely circuits as I choose without fear of some super-swimmer diving in over me. And I can gradually acclimatise to warmer weather. All good! 

A friend who is coming out to visit in a couple of weeks is already scanning weather forecasts, hoping for sunshine when she arrives. I keep reminding her that a forecast can be given at the start of a week and change totally by the end of the same week. 

Meteorology still seems to be a very inexact science.