I know I go on about the heat here, but having spent much of my life living in the UK and before arriving down here on this little island, we spent several years living in Holland. It’s not surprising that these really hot windy days more than take my breath away.
Although this last week has been hot, around 29c the really hot winds that came in last night came as a surprise. At around 9pm the wind got up and sitting on the terrace you could feel it was warm. Hoping it would turn a little cooler to take the dogs out we hung on. But by 11pm it was still very warm and so we decided we had to take the dogs for a walk and the seafront would probably be cooler. On our way down to the beach we met our friend who warned us that it was even hotter on the seafront. So much so that she had spent the last hour in the sea with her little doggie and suggested that’s what we should do.
As we walked along the seafront the wind was blowing strongly and the heat was amazing. We looked along the shoreline and saw many people in the water. It was clearly the best place to be even after 11pm!
So taking our shoes off, with the dogs still on their leads, we trudged over the warm sands down to the shoreline. Our latest doggy has never been on the beach so we were interested to see how he reacted to the ripples of the waves as they gentle crept along the beach. As soon as we walked into the water, Poppy, our first doggy turned and stood the length of her lead away from me with her back to the sea! Sadly this little doggy had been very badly treated and we suspect had been thrown into pools and water, hence her reluctance. We had hoped that after the years of living with us, she might not be so afraid, so not wanting to distress her, I stayed with her as CB took Barney down to the water. To our surprise instead of jumping in and enjoying the water, which he normally loves, he licked the salty waves and then ran back. It seemed our doggies were not interested in the ocean and cooling down so with sandy feet we trudged back to our shoes. But before putting on our shoes we went to the foot showers and would you believe it at 11.30pm we had to queue!
But if we thought last night the wind was hot, we were in for a surprise when we got up this morning. By early afternoon the temperature in the shade and in the garden was just 7c degrees difference – 40c in the shade and 47c in the garden. The doggies are flat out in our office in the villa where the AC is keeping them cool and were we are trying to catch up on writing and work with the occasional dip in the pool to cool down. It seems we could have this wind for a few more days. I just hope the forecasters are wrong!