The canicule brings on a state of torpidity.
Two words we don’t use often here.
Heat wave and listlessness–brought on by excessive heat.
I’m writing this at ten to ten in the evening and my arms are perspiring–(more than you need to know I suspect).
We haven’t taken the cats for their stroll tonight.
Beau looks forward to this ritual now and the other night when we were headed to Lautrec for the samba evening he watched us from the cemetery wall with a look of disappointment in his eyes–I swear.
Even Lucien the adopted tigré (tabby) whose arthritis makes him hobble, managed a crooked tail-rise as he made his way up the hill towards us, remembering past evening perambulations with Butterscotch and Marmalade.
Pippa, the mother of all cats, hung back as usual awaiting our return.
I always suspect she regrets not coming with us–in the end.
Tonight it’s too hot to move anywhere–even with the fans blowing full strength.
La Depeche du Midi–the local daily–was full of gloom this morning, reminding everyone of the 2003 canicule, when upward of 15,000 people died, saying this heatwave will be on that scale.
That mustn’t happen again–so warnings are in order.
Lucien is taking heed–sacked out on the sofa!
Robin Ellis 
Hi Robin
It’s extremely hot here in Dorset tonight, as well. Though that hasn’t stopped my dogs, Bella and Ruby wanting their evening stroll along the beach tonight. Only a slight sea breeze disturbed the very warm air but looking at the stars dancing over the sea made it worthwhile.
Have recently discovered your fantastic book and am enjoying trying out many of your recipes.
Take care in the heat. Joan
Sounds lovely–and thanks, Joan, I’m glad you like it.
Sounds like you have no air conditioning there. I hope at least you have a fan or two for relief. Please do take care to avoid heat exhaustion. We saw a lot of it come through the emergency department here in July when we had a long run of 100 degree-F (about 38 degrees C?) temperatures. Take care to stay hydrated. I pray the awful heat breaks soon.
Stay in the shade is the answer. Our old house has thick walls that keep it cool if you manage it right. Close the shutters early and the windows. Counter intuitive to the English!
Good Morning Robin and Meredith. Hope your weather ‘breaks’ very soon. I have woken to rain lashing, seriously beating down here in the wilds of Shetland. I think we could all do with weather half way between the extremes we are experiencing! Stay cool – Stella 🙂
Great heavens! Such heat in mid-August? It reminds me so much of the heat here during January – February. 15,000 heat victims? This surely has been wrongly reported… Dear Meredith and Robin, please take the greatest care…
Dear Robin,Still very hot here in Antwerp too, Puske-puske mostly lays on the bed, she suffers too from the heat, we have here a blowing fan but it just seems now that it circle the hot air.We had 35 °C yesterday, still I prefer this weather then cold ice, snow and rain.The storm will come here in one of the coming days…hopefully with not to much damage.I remember the disaster of years ago of the heat in France I hope the people get enough drinks in hospitals & homes now.On these hot days it’s important to take often rest and drink a lot of water.For the rest enjoy the sun (with good suncream) or in the shade, hughs xx.
Even hotter today. Yes plenty of water.
Hi Robin – my family in SE England were ‘melting’ likewise yesterday. Shetland, that place of ‘individual’ weather was also enjoying hot weather. I would suggest we went to 21/22 deg on and around my home island of Trondra. Did the sensible thing, walked/swam the dogs on a local beach. Then left them in the cool of the house to sleep while hubby, Youngest son Ross and I took the boat out to catch our dinner. Fabulous temperature! For Shetland a kind of a heatwave too. We made 24 deg in May. Lovely! Hope you and Meredith are enjoying a more comfortable temperature today. All the best, Stella.
What did you catch Stella?
Mackerel, tusk and a sun tan. Fishcakes now in the freezer. 🙂
love your small cat diary………I have 3 a Burman, a Burmilla and a very poorly Red Siamese, they make me smile…..:-))
Robin, its the same here in Tuscany. Its a big problem, now. I read on newspaper that we have reserve of water only for one month…if we have no rain it will be a ration in the night. We are in mountain with parents; here we are at 800mt.but it always warm in the night too. Spend our days in relax, reading, drinking tons of water and doing things less as possible. Cats are staying lie all day on the green grass looking at around the garden, dog stay with me and hubby in relax…. So i am an active woman but now I not doing anythings…the only thing that I love do is….Cooking!!! And today I will cook Ossibuchi alla Milanese! If you don’t know the recipe I will happy to send it. Have a great day with less calure, of course 😉 love Bea
Sounds lovely, Beatrice–if a bit hot up there in north Tuscany. I spoke to our friend south of Florence and he says he expects no rain for two weeks.
He is hoping his olives won’t suffer.
I would like to know how you cook ossi bucci.
keep cool!
The courgette gratin recipe looks delicious! Lovely to hear the latest on your lovely cats. My Jimmy (ginger and white tabby) spent yesterday afternoon flaked out on the bedroom floor. I tried to tell him that heat rises so it was marginally cooler downstairs. He just looked at me with a pained expression. Funny, he is usually pretty clever at finding the most comfortable spot. It was a sign of the heat that he actually did not sleep on the bed for the last two nights but early yesterday up he comes to say a perfunctory good morning. Then out he stretches his back leg out to rest on top of me while he performs his morning ablutions. So glad that I have my uses!! Ablutions completed, off he jumps again!
Much cooler and overcast today with forecast for an ‘unsettled’ Bank Holiday weekend – so that was summer! I met some Danes on Saturday. Denmark has had a wet miserable summer too. Just imagine that, followed by the dark and gloom of a Scandinavian winter…and we think WE will struggle with our winter after a poor summer!
Their weather helps inspire the Danes to some impressive TV drama!
Hope your cat with an unusual coat finds some cool spot–you too, Susan!
Yes, these Danish visitors were really chuffed that Scandinavian drama has become so popular in the UK in recent years. BBC4 9 p.m. Saturdays has become must-see viewing for so many people I know and a real talking point even for non-linguists. Can’t wait for The Killing 3 and The Bridge 2 (such an interesting female lead character).
Its been hot in Glasgow too Robin!, unusually!….I ventured out to the shops yesterday, and bought a Mobile Air-Con Unit….Left it on all night, and my flat was like a fridge this morning!…I had to put the wall fire on, to warm it up!….lol.
Ill try your latest recipe this week, as always, meredith has the knack, of making photos look very edible!….
Stay Cool
Regards Maurice
It happens rarely, Maurice, but on this occasion Meredith was not available so I took the photo!
I live in Maryland and after a three week visit in the UK over June-July this Summer, the heat we came home to was so unbearable, which is what the Summer is usually like here; lasting far too long. It was rather rainy and cool when we were in England, and no one understood why I loved it. (I knew what I was coming back to!)
What sort of temperature & humidity are you dealing with?
39 tomorrow (102.2)
Do you have air conditioning, Robin? I guess not. We couldn’t function in Maryland without Air (SheilaMry and Genie Pohl- have backed me up!) .
102 is very hot-this is just not normal for a human being to endure. I am hoping at least it is dry heat. We get very humid heat- hot wet heat from the Chesapeake Bay, blech – it is so disgusting! It makes me evil! I have had no air conditioning all summer and it has been brutal. Miraculously, it has recently cooled down from 100 plus -to 95 to 91 to 85. I can live with 85 degrees.
I am a heat weeny. I don’t mind the cold at all. As far as I’m concerned British summers would suit me fine. I have been in England in August and loved every minute of the weather (event the rain- I’m goofy!) . Especially the fire place going at night. I thought I died and went to heaven when in Scotland and was actually COLD and had to put on a a sweater! I can understand SheilaMry not wanting to leave the cool of England!
Take it easy and lounge about and drink cool drinks. You have the permission of the Poldarkians. Just hang out- where are those people with swimming pools when you need them?
There isn’t much left of summer, soon it will be cold. The acorns are falling from my big oak trees in my back yard and the squirrels are going crazy. This may portend a cold winter! I always especially look forward to the glorious autumn. My favourite season. Hang in there!
Good advice, Judy. We are surviving. The walls here are thick and we are just sitting around and trying not to feel guilty!
Yes, it’s been really hot in Washington, DC this summer. It’s good came here in the spring, not the summer, as we has multiple days over 100 degrees. Is the kitchen very hot when you are cooking in the heat?
That depends how it’s going!
Robin we too are experiencing very hot weather in West Sussex. Every evening we take our golden lab Winston for a walk, normally accompanied by one our cats Rodney (much to the amusement of our neighbours!). It was so hot yesterday that Rodney decided he would give it a miss and stayed under the cool of the hedge in our garden. All in all I definately think Rodney made the wisest decision to stay at home, as Winston and I were thoroughly exhausted and we didnt even end up walking that far!
GUILTY you say??!!! HOGWASH! Ever since I fainted from the heat I never felt gulty about being a heat sloth. Just look at your kitties. I am sure they are not feeling guilty! LOL! A couple of years ago- I had YET ANOTHER air conditioning breakdown (don’t ask) and I had my dear cat Claude then(who acted more like a golden retriever) and he and I sat in my car in my drivway with the air conditioning cranked up for several hours. I was guzzling down icy cold beverages. Claude LOVED it ..I guess it was an adventure for him. He was sitting on the passenger seat with me very content as I played on my smartphone and listened to the radio…hey a heat weeny has to do what a heat weeny has to do!
I have a friend who was running 4 miles in the 105 degree heatwave that we had this summer- I told him he was NUTZ.He was premed so he thinks he’s a doctor. He gave me all of this scientific stuff about “the body being used it it and, if you are hydrated and have blah blah blah in your body and are fit..blah.” and I still told him he was NUTTTTZ!!!
Mad dogs–he must be an Englishman!
Dear Robin here the recipe even if my English is not fluenty…sorry 😉
Put in a casserole carrots, onions and sedano with olive oil and little butter. When vegetables will be gold put the Ossibuchi (its a part of cow near spinal midol) and cook for about one hour. During the cooking add warm water or “brodo”. No tomatoes; we use to say “in bianco”. Its a classical recipe from Milan very famous like Risotto alla Milanese (Milan’s rice) and Scaloppina alla Milanese (fried-steak). Very delicious and healthy. In general I am not use the butter, but add only oliva oil: parents and hubby have colhesterol…. Let me know when you will decide to cook Ossibuchi, surelu you will enjoy!!
A little good new for us in Tuscany: we will have rains in the next week end. As you we really need of a lot of rain! Cause siccity this year no fagioli zolfini; too much few for a sale and there serve also for the next semina, and probably the wine will be not preciuos: what a pity! Ohh yes, true; my parents’s house is like yours: thick walls protect us from the warm: so we spent all day in the house reading; listening music, playing cards and chatting with the neighborough. Totally the same life like when its raining….. very incredible, The only good change is that in the late afternnon and in the night we can stay out in the garden! Have a nice night!
Thanks Beatrice–I am going to try this this week. I’ll let you know!!
Sorry to hear that you’ve gotten the heat & humidity that we recently got RID of! We were keeping the shades down to limit the sun, but it didn’t get rid of the oppressive humidity! We lucked out this last week or so, temps back to around 75-80, and the evenings have been lovely–cooler–for walking. (The nights now feel more like October, to tell the truth!) My Dad told me it was a chilly 59 F in his house this morning! Of course, hurricane season is on the way…though it usually peters out to just rain by the time it reaches us. Relax, read a book, and hang in there; as they say, “This too shall pass!” 😉
PS: Meredith, have you been following the droughts in the Midwest? The paddleboats have been getting stuck in the mud on the Miss. River…submerged towns in Indiana are actually visible again!…food prices are going to shoot sky-high because of all the lost crops (just what we need right now!)…and horrible fires continue to ravage thousands of acres farther west…I guess we’re pretty lucky here in New England, overall!!
Yes, I heard about temperatures in France. We have high humidity levels here too. A hot weather spray from the chemist helps us.
Yesterday, I was watching ITV’s “The Story of costume drama”. It all started with Richard Greene in “Robin Hood”. They talked about ” Poldark” and “I Claudius”–popular all round the world.
Pity I missed “I Claudius”. I was working in Spain at the time-my parents told me it was good.
The programme discussed impact of English costume dramas-. “Upstairs Downstairs” was a success too.
Ohhh — my condolences on the weather. I live in a brick house without air conditioning, and it’s been like an oven this summer. My 5-year-old cat, Lila Rose, has trouble with the heat as I do. But Owen, the new Maine Coon kitten (that’s him in the gravatar) is unfazed by it. He chases his big sister around the house until she is panting for air. I wonder if cats can faint?
The worst of the heat seems to be finished here in New England, and I hope it will soon pass for you, too.
granny made tomato corjets on monday and it was lovely
love from LUCY x
Please excuse the spelling, Robin – she is only 7! I had a senior moment when reading your hot weather (this) post. For a moment I convinced myself you had acquired a poodle. Well, it was ages ago when I did french……and caniche is not so different!
To Lucy–hooray and thank you for telling me!
I once at the 1979 Cannes Film Fest was driven up the Corniche on the back of Tim Woodward’s motor bike to the premiere of The Europeans.
Re your comment: That is what the locals on this side of the Tamar are called.
Hope it is cooling down for you – we have a lovely breeze today and, amazingly for this summer, sunshine. Sitting here in the orchard is just heaven.
A-arrh me ‘ansome, the canny corniches…
Working in 100 degree (hot and humid) weather in Baltimore convinced my 2 sons to further their education. My sons never liked studying. My oldest who is now 27 failed his first year of college. After that he took a job in landscaping for 2 years which convinced him to return to school after working in hot Baltimore summers. He is now taking college courses to become a nurse. John who is 21 worked in a boat yard sanding boats for 2 years. He had to wear protective gear ( full body suite, helmet and filter) for protection because of chemicals he would be exposed to. He wore this gear in 100 degree plus weather!! He was so tired when he came home from work that he would go to bed at 6PM!! John is now thinking of going to college because he never wants an outdoor job again!! I hate hot humid weather but I think of my sons and remember that hot/
humid weather pushed them forward in life.
Wow! well at least my kitchen is indoors!
Thank you I enjoyed your post!
andrea
Thanks, Andrea.
Ann, Robin- All- did you kow that Maryland and DC and the mid-Atlantic, INCLUDING New York City – are considered “subtropical?” This area is down right TROPICAL in the summer with the 100 degree temps and very high humidity. We seldom get really freezing winters (but we have gotten them) and it is usually above freezing. We do get blasted with huge snow storms from time to time but nothing like New England. Much of Maryland and DC is swampland. I also read that after the War of Independence that British diplomats were given extra pay for working in “subtropical or tropical environment.” Hope your heat wave is over with, Robin. Here in Baltimore it has cooled down to about 87 degrees. Feels great after 100 plus temps. AUTUMN HURRY UP!
It’s the humidity that gets me…
Yes you are right Judy Baltimore is subtropical. Today is lovely