T-shirt and flip flop weather

     All the Brits I know love to talk about the weather.  It is one of the main questions I get asked whenever I met a new person who is British or English, or Scottish, or Welsh, or whatever they are calling themselves this week.   Most of them think I will comment about how nasty it is or how cold and wet or something along those lines.  Truth be told - I love the British weather, possibly much more than they do!  So it is common for them to complain about the weather and grumble about it, grouse about it, swear at it, and leave it whenever possible.   I am happy to be in it where there are actual seasons: spring, summer, fall, winter.  And each season has its own charm and characteristics and accompanying weather.

     A very common British past-time is to head to Spain or Italy or Greece during any break they have (from school or work) whenever the weather dips below 20C (around 70F - roughly).   A good status symbol is to show up at work during the winter with a tan!  Obviously it means you are rich and lucky enough to have gone somewhere warm enough to sit out in the sun for a few days.  

      I personally have a very small comfortable temperature range.  It is a joke in my family that I am most comfortable when the temperature is around 68F to 72F.  Anything different and I start complaining about being too hot or too cold.  The thermostat gets twisted around, clothes come on, clothes come off, blankets on or off the beds, whatever.  All this is probably going to cause problems when we retire to Florida!  But I have gotten much better at being out of doors in England in a much wider variety of temperatures.  As such, I can run around outside when the weather is in the teens (10-16C) with just a hoodie and stay fairly OK.  Any colder, and I am reaching for a good coat, good gloves and scarf or hat as well.

     It is amazing that when I am bundled up, there are still many Brits who are so used to their cold winter weather that I am passing them on the street where they are wearing just their t-shirt, jeans, and flip flops!  I've seen so many Brits dressed in this standard "uniform" at 10C or even 5C.  I feel quite proud of myself that I have extended my range of comfortable temperatures but I don't think I'll ever get that comfortable.

     Yesterday I went out with a friend and it was cold enough for it to snow on us briefly and for me to have a very warm coat and gloves.  She had on a sweater and that was it!  No fleece, no gloves, no coat, no hat.   We had to even stand outside for about 10 minutes and I didn't see her shiver once!  When asked, she said she was used to it because they don't have central heating in their house!  No heating!   OMG.  I definitely would have a hard time with that.  The few times our boiler has broken in the middle of cold weather, I've not been able to function without so many layers that I couldn't function anyway because I couldn't move!

     So my husband and I now joke about whether the weather is T-shirt and flip flop weather or fleece weather or heavy coat weather.  In all instances - we're talking winter weather!

to Drought or Not to Drought

So much talk this spring about the lack of water and the drought we are going to be having and a hosepipe ban. some of this needs translation for the poor former colonists who don't speak the Queen's English anymore. Hosepipe is what they call a garden hose. simple enough. Spring is apparently the time between March and June when it is lighter and brighter outside but still could freeze or snow or hail, and has several times on us. Not at all like spring in Houston - our last address - where spring meant you saw all your flowers bloom briefly before the heat killed them.

Supposedly, we have heard, you get a mailed notice if you are under a hosepipe ban because of lack of water. Then unless you get an exemption, you can't water your grass, wash your car, fill your birdbath or any such thing with your hose. You can do all of that if you carry the water out of your house in a bucket. Also we have been told that neighbors are particularly good at ratting you out and telling on you if they see you with the hose in your hand. Exceptions are if you have a pond with live fish. Then you are allowed to use the hose to keep it full so your fish don't die. We do have a fish pond and while our fish died over the winter, we have since restocked it. It has still been so cold thought that we haven't seen the fish since we released them into the pond.

Now to the meat of the drought - we're thinking it's not much of one if at all. For the past two weeks, it has rained pretty much every day and almost all day long. We spent several days emptying out a bucket from the overflow of our water butt and also from a drip in our gutter. Then we got smart and went and purchased another water butt. Now this butt is also full. Our garden is so saturated that it is swampy in the low areas. I squish when I walk across the grass/moss. I expect to find ducks out there any day splashing about in the puddles. Also, we visited Ham House which is a historical manor and located on the Thames. The Thames was out of its banks and well across several walkways in the area.

This being our first year in England, not sure how much of this is normal and how much is just luck (good or bad) that it didn't rain much for January and February but started raining in late March and hasn't stopped really. I'm hoping that there isn't a drought and that we will not get an official notice not to use our hosepipe but should that happen, I have my water butts before I start hauling water out of the house. I'm good to go.