It’s good to see a pointer telling me the wind is coming from “over there”. “Over there” is North West. Not quite North, but near enough to ensure we are engulfed in cold, cold air. Strike that – make it cold, cold, windy air. The weather forecast here as far ahead as the Met Office goes is dry, largely sunny and on no day between here and the weekend are we forecast to get a temperature of over 12⁰C. It’s nearly the end of May for heaven’s sake. Last week, on Tuesday evening we had sheets of snow hitting our windows. It didn’t lay here but it did on Dartmoor 20 miles from here. On Friday morning I got up at 5am and the sunshine bus was covered in frost. Our weather has gone completely bonkers.

It should be reasonable to assume that this late in the year, if you are working outdoors then you should be able to do it in a teeshirt, shouldn’t it? So why then was a long-sleeved teeshirt with a sweatshirt over the top not enough to keep out the cold while I was painting? I’m wondering if we are ever going to have “normal” weather ever again. Late in the day the clouds dispersed but the temperature didn’t change. We have overnights of 6⁰C forecast again in the coming few days.

I’m thinking of emigrating to somewhere more benign.

Actually - looking at this image, isn't it interesting how the edge of the weather vane that faces into the wind is all corroded?