English Summer - back to normal!

There I was raving about the gorgeous weather in London and southern England not that long ago, pretending that rain here was a thing of the past... Well, reality has reasserted itself in the shape of a cool August with lots of rain, just as I was getting my shorts ready for more fine weather. Perhaps it was optimistic of me to think that the summer of 2017 would be so different than most summers past, but there you go; I'm a bit of a dreamer, me.

So the weather is cooler in London, which is no bad thing, as the city is not built for extreme heat. Wandering about the tourist- thronged streets is far more pleasant, though high humidity still means that rapid motion results in copious sweating ('glowing' in the case of women, I suppose). All in all it's all pretty pleasant apart from the rain, which restricts the movement of pedestrians like me or results in very wet clothing.

What hasn't changed, of course, is the glory of nature in full verdant bloom. London's parks are oases,  glimpses of paradise in such a big city, lush and inviting for Londoners and visitors alike; they truly are one of the great glories of this megalopolis, helping to humanise it, somehow soften it. They are also one of the reasons why I love London and living here.

But enough of that, because today has been an absolutely miserable day weather-wise - it has rained and rained, then rained some more. The charming Australian couple I bumped into at a tube station this morning asked me, in a somewhat bemused tone, 'what happened to your nice English summer?' And, of course, this is the other side of my optimistic earlier post; luckily this year we have had both, but I do remember summers that were primarily wet and miserable, with few redeeming days.

Anybody walking around London today, soaked to the skin and dripping water, would be entitled to question not only global warning but climate change in general, as it is also chilly. Weather is, was, and always will be unpredictable, though, so that we shouldn't judge more general trends on the basis of a few days, possibly extreme for the time of year.

Tomorrow is forecast to be largely sunny, folks, so all is not lost, but the message from me in London is: weather is changeable so don't worry about it too much, and certainly don't let it ruin your day. It tried and failed to ruin mine today, though I must admit that getting wet is no fun, nor do I particularly enjoy lugging an umbrella everywhere with me. But don't we all have more important things to worry about...???