40C

The heatwave brought by a mass of Saharan air peaked today at 40C at the house. It was still 39C at Florence airport at 18.20. I pickled peppers, watered the garden and lay in the dark in front of a fan.

The weather and the retreat into the dark made me think of Fidelma Cook’s dispatches from La France Profonde in the Glasgow Herald. I followed her on Twitter through the Brexit Wars and was sad to learn she died in June of this year.

Soon it will be time (it’s 21:42) to open the windows to try and lure new and slightly cooler air into the house.

Climate change really is here, every summer hotter and seemingly drier.

Atlantic air is forecast to move south by midweek collapsing these torrid temperatures.