I think I counted four consecutive days of sun last week/weekend, which must've been the limit. Today it hailed! The temp has dropped significantly since Sunday, unfortunate for me because I've been dying to break out my shorts and new sandals forever now. I actually put on my shorts to make a happy hour last Friday (an Italy-inspired, summer-worthy shopping spree might have taken place recently). But I had to change before I even got out of the house that afternoon because the rain clouds were looming and the cold wind had set in. When there is no sun, there is little warmth.
Where there is sun, however, it sticks around for awhile! The sun doesn't completely set until about 10:15pm these days and is already on its way up again by 3:45am. How do I know, you ask? Because it starts peeking around the corners of our bedroom curtain and finding its way into our faces. Fortunately our curtains keep it just dim enough to sleep comfortably, but the chirping birds that sing around the clock make sure we're completely aware of the hour. I would love to put up blackout shades but have determined that they don't work well with the types of windows used in the flats here. The windows don't slide up and down, like in American homes, rather they swing back toward the inside of the room to open. So the window would have to be shut to use a blackout shade. And since there's no air conditioning in our place (as goes for most of the UK), it gets a little muggy when that happens. Dilemma, dilemma!
Here's our street at 9:45pm on a cloudy day...
This evening I made a Greek salad for dinner - salad, black and green olives, roasted red peppers, feta, garlic cloves and marinated artichoke hearts. Mmm mmm good! Now I'm trying to figure out how to update my blog's layout to give me a little more space on this thing while sipping wine, catching up on the latest gossip/fashion magazines and baking some banana bread for the husband. Oh, and watching a little 007 on the "tele." It's from the Pierce Brosnan era (Die Another Day), so a little cheesy but still among my favorite films.
I just ordered these postcards I made to send to close friends and family - it's important to us to keep in touch! We just made our first plans with friends back in the US, an Aggie fall football game! It feels good to be included and we are getting very excited about moving back. I've been pretty homesick this week..
I promise to get back on the blog more often! I'm working on adding some pages as well, so keep an eye out for changes over the next few weeks. Bask in the glorious sun rays that might grace your day and send warm thoughts our way...
Just extremes for fall/winter to sring/summer! Loved your pic of the Greek Salad....made my mouth water! It is really warm here....90's today! Will be turning the A/C on tomorrow. Have used the bedroom ones for several weeks now. We have early birds sing to us but at least it is dark at a decent time and doesn't get light til a reasonable hour! Lookign forward to blog 'pages'....I read about them....will leave it to you to find out the ins and outs! Hope you continue to blog once you are back in the states! We all enjoy reading about your adventures...ALL of them!
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