Contrasts

Only up to 32 today but bad shit is coming down the road. The heatwave forecast to return across southern Europe with particularly strong impact on Italy. Forecast here for 37 but that could be more. All time 42c record in Florence (2 degrees higher than Rome) May be broken.

But the 4x2 m pool is cool, olives are coming on, first pick of the frigitelle peppers - for frying/frigere. Then late in the relative cool of this evening I fought back the wild abandoned land at the bottom of our patch that yearly threatens to overwhelm the thin fence that keeps boar and deer at bay. When we arrived this fence was flattened and overgrown. I raised it like Lazarus but the old chestnut poles now need replacing. I worked on into dusk because this may be last chance to hack back the wet spring’s chaos of vegetation.

They are calling this Saharan high pressure system Cerberus, the three-headed (?) dog of Hell. If you’re coming to Italy next week pack your lightest sun-covering mosquito proof clothes and a laptop to on which to watch the Tour de France live through the afternoon.