Let It Snow...

Woohoo! It was bloody cold yesterday, and the roads around us were gritted around 10pm, so I wasn't entirely surprised to wake up to see an inch or so of snow sitting on the ground. I rushed down to the little park at the end of the main road to get some piccies.

And when I got home, the flat had been invaded by hornéd Vikings (well, just the one, and she was quite cute).

Hot, Hot, Hot!

I'm beginning to understand why most Madrileños get out of the city in August if they can. It's bloody hot (high 30s, methinks) and it's been a bit humid the last few days. You might think we should be used to it, having lived in Dubai for so long. But everything in Dubai is air-conditioned, even the cheapest, nastiest car has a/c. So you run from building to car and back again and don't really experience the heat. In Spain the extreme heat only hits for a month or two, so air conditioning is not so common.

We had a house-warming party a month ago, and about thirty people came. The house certainly got warm, and two of our neighbours disappeared down to their store-room and came back with a portable air-conditioner. They said they didn't need it in their flat because they've got permanent a/c installed, so we could hang on to it as long as we wanted. It was extremely kind of them, but we really didn't think we'd use it. It has, however, been on day and night for most of the last week.

Before we made the move to Spain (2 years and 12 days ago, in fact), we spent a couple of summers in Valencia and Barcelona. During the second of these trips we did a 2-week intensive Spanish course. On our way to class one day (we might have got off the tram one stop too early), my shirt was soaked, so MamaDuck disappeared into a shop and came out bearing a brand-new t-shirt. I put it on and we went into the classroom. Llorence, our conversation teacher took one look at it and collapsed in laughter.



'What does it mean?' I asked.
'Fuck, it's hot,' he replied.

Sadly, that shirt went missing shortly after we returned to Dubai, although I have seen it on sale here in Madrid.

Weather Report

We noticed the weather was a little bit cooler today. Of course, it's the first of August, so we're almost into winter. It was quite humid and overcast when we came back from town this afternoon, and at 8pm we heard rain outside. It was a torrential downpour. Which is good, because we hadn't watered the plants on the roof.

Let It Snow...

Last night was pretty cold: so cold that I went out and bought another heater. It's pretty cold this morning too, there's white stuff falling out of the sky and settling all around. I love it!









Of course, this does mean there is complete and utter chaos on the roads, lots of motorways around Madrid are closed, and people are stranded.

The Hail In Spain...

It's one thirty a.m. Plaza de Chueca is deserted. It's awash with rain and chunks of ice. We've just had the most unbelievable storm. For at least twenty minutes there was thunder, lightning, and hailstones that could break a window and that have probably dented the bodywork of any cars on the street. This'll be that global warming thing, I expect.

Everything in the Garden is Lovely

It seems that Summer has finally arrived. We've had a couple of days of unbroken sunshine, and the peak temperature today was forecast to be 34° C. I likes it. Regular readers will know that MamaDuck has been investing heavily in plants over the last three or four weekends. Here's a few photos of the results.


re-potting




coriander / cilantro gone to seed


capsicums / peppers


tomatoes (still green)

Weather [el Tiempo]

Oh, for heaven's sake. It's June tomorrow. And it's still raining in Madrid. We had a couple of weeks of proper spring weather about a month ago, which we assumed would morph into several months of unbroken sunshine. Instead, we've had weeks and weeks of either continuous rain, or rain interrupted by very short sunny spells. Grrr. It's not supposed to be like this, and apparently never has been in the past. Anyway, it's good for the ever-growing (pun not intended) collection of plants on our terrace.

Weather: You Like it or Not

We have endured our first Madrid winter, and, happily, it was not nearly as horrible as we had been led to believe it might be. A couple of weeks ago we thought that Spring had sprung. It's been sunny and dry, and depending on the wind-chill factor (which can be very significant up here at almost 700 metres above sea level), warm. And this is great, because it means we can use the terrace for sitting out on, and eating and drinking, and this effectively doubles the size of our flat.

But today has been pretty horrible. It's been overcast all day, with little spots of rain through the afternoon. About half-an-hour ago (7pm), the heavens opened and the rain came down. It brought some hail with it too, and a whole lot of thunder and lightning.

The thunderstorm has passed now, but it's still raining quite heavily.

Ach, well, it could be worse. I could be in England, where they've had snow. I guess it's all to do with global warming.

Salida Del Sol [Sunrise]

This is what I saw from the terrace at about 7.30 this morning:


By the way, the Spanish word 'sonrisa' means 'smile'. I'm still lovin' it.

El tiempo [the weather]

One of the things I was looking forward to after leaving Dubai was Proper Weather. Proper in the sense of having four well-defined seasons in a year. But not British weather which is too damn cold and too damn wet.

Madrid has a continental climate, rather than a temperate or Mediterranean one. I remember this from 'O'-level geography. The climate on the edges of continents is moderated by the warming or cooling effect of the sea. But when you are a few hundred miles from the sea you don't get this moderating effect, and the difference between winter and summer becomes quite extreme. Add to that the fact that Madrid, at 700 metres above sea level, is akin to being near the top of a mountain. It's chuffing cold!

When we arrived in August the daytime max was around 35 Celsius. But we noticed that in the shade it was considerably cooler. We've had a few rainy days, and a few cloudy days, but generally the mornings are cool until you get into the sunshine, and then it's warm. Even today, nearly at the end of October, we had sunshine this afternoon, and it was very pleasant. But the useful hours of hot sun decline each day, and last night we had to put an extra quilt on the bed. There was no sun this morning, and there was a chilly wind coming from somewhere. I made my regular Saturday morning excursion to Gran Via to get a Guardian; had I been a brass monkey I would have come home with my balls in my pocket. It was seriously cold.

So it's probably time to harass the landlord about getting the promised heater/AC installed.