An Indian Summer

We have strange weather here in Southern Europe. The end of summer was wetter than I have known it for the past twenty-five years. Not only that, I stopped using the swimming pool after the first week in October, when I usually still use it a full two weeks later.

Last winter the stream at the bottom of my garden didn’t start flowing again until the second week in january, when it usually starts some time in november. However, this year it suddenly filled with water in october, but within a week the flow just drained away, and here we are in the middle of november with the stream bed bone dry, and no chance of rain in sight.

This is serious, because if we have only normal rainfall this winter we have enough water in the reservoirs to last us until april of next year. Suppose we have less? And there are no water usage restrictions in force. In other words unless we have rather a lot of rain over the course of the next five months we wont get through the summer, and there are going to be a lot of very unhappy tourists, never mind those of us who live here.

Here’s a picture of the current weather pattern for the next couple of weeks. I think it’s fine, but we do need some serious rain or we are all in big trouble. But in terms of temperatures, the weather is superb

And it is unusual for us to be eating in the garden at this time of the year with my daughter insisting that the table should be in the shade because it is too hot in the sun

Away in Lisbon the boring news is that the prime minister has had to resign. Another one caught with his fingers in the till. All pointless, because the next one will be just the same. Politicians all over the world are only in it for what they can get out of it, by whatever means. I suppose we can look on the bright side; another useless politician out of the way.

Further afield things continue to be disastrous, and it is getting more and more difficult to ignore the sheer exuberance of government sponsored destruction that is ravaging the planet. My own view is that we should set up a system that is run autonomously according to the citizens’ direct votes. With modern technology that can easily be done. Politicians are redundant, and should be hounded out of office. Next week I’ll try and cull a chapter from one of my books about precisely this subject.

Until then, have a good week if that is possible.