Scorcher

For two days now, we've had hot sunny weather here in the Grim North. We rejoice, we sit outside, we get burned arms and noses and patchy, stripy tans because we can't quite remember where we put the sun cream last year, and we have a collective moan about not being able to get into our summer clothes because we are too fat after a winter under woollies. We find our sandals and wear them for too long at a time, till we get raw rubbed spots on our tender pallid feet. We go to the coast, and find that there's a nasty wind there, and that sand whipped up into sunburned skin is deeply unpleasant. And we tell each other about the optimistic weather forecast, and how this will last till Wednesday!

And it might, but it probably won't, and these few hot sunny days might well prove to have been our summer, just like last year. Not that I'm a pessimist, you understand.