Typical heatwave

According to the radio, we’re in for a heatwave.
Yep. We had one glorious day over the weekend, and it’s time to put the thermals away and get the bikinis out. I haven’t figured out where the heavy frost fits in yet.

As the sun blazes in over my left shoulder (it’s 5.25pm and we have some FABULOUS sunsets here) , I can’t see my screen for dazzleness and I can feel my back toasting in the warm embrace of a ‘solar flare’.
This morning though, it was grey and overcast, but we went for our walk in the woods as planned. A nice long one today, and as we were going along, I started to get pretty hot.
Off came the woolly hat. I swear you could have seen steam and felt the heat blast.
It was no good, the thermal gloves came off next and were stuffed into my other pocket. My hips looked like chipmunk cheeks and the dog was getting all excited because the biscuit pocket was positively bulging.
I was still sweating profusely some ten minutes later, so there was nothing for it but to unzip the coat. I wish I hadn’t worn my vest AND thick sweater today.
Feeling like I was doing a woodland striptease but without waving my clothes over my head and discarding everything behind me, we carried on.

We met up with one of our friends and were glad to see that they still had their golden retriever (think Doug from the animated movie UP) .  She was 11 in January and came bounding up to us all waggy tailed and grinning. The last time we’d seen them, she had been very tired and ploddy but we know she’s got lung problems so it was lovely to see her. We asked if she was allowed biscuits today, and before the answer was given she was literally sitting on my foot with her paw poised.
After chatting for about 5 minutes, we continued on our way.

A couple we didn’t know with a toffee brown minature King Charles spaniel on a lead were coming towards us. We exchanged a joke about dog behaviour and stopped for some fuss. The pup was only 10 months old and they were anxious about letting him off as they were afraid he might chase a squirrel or something and get lost. We suggested a couple of recall training tips that had worked for us and they said they’d give them a try.
Everyone was friendly and more biscuits were offered and munched. I was an instant ‘hit’ and no doubt the pup will remember me next time.
Leaving them, we noticed the wind had come up and it was getting a little chilly. Time to do my striptease in reverse.

This afternoon, the sun came out. It was glorious, just like it had been on Sunday.
We thought it was too nice to have a short walk, so decided to go back out to the river.
By the time we got there, the sun had gone in, but it was still warm, though we kept out of the wind by doing yesterday’s route in reverse.
We saw the white heron again,
and today two ducks were swimming happily in the pool by the bullrushes.
It was otherwise quiet.
When we got back to the car, another vehicle was parked alongside us, its occupant a lone female.
We were grateful she wasn’t blasting the estuary with boom music.

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