heatwave – Maddie Grigg

Here in South West France there is little let-up in the rampaging heatwave.

Occasionally, a storm will break the stalemate and the plants breathe a sigh of relief and stop slouching for just a second. But then we’re back on the endless treadmill of feeling hot, hot, hot.

There are clouds in the sky this morning and a slight breeze whipping around my bare feet so I’m using the time in my little office to get on with some project planning.

I’ve done some writing, done some editing and now it’s time to sit back and think about marketing my new novel, which is due out on Kindle later this month and will be launched as a paperback in the autumn.

I’m also working on a narrative non-fiction story which will take me halfway around the world and probably won’t be finished until 2028.

So there’s plenty going on in my head, but the heat makes my brain scramble and opens the door for lethargy to just come on in and wipe its feet all over my creativity.

In other news, the travelling pan has arrived for the village’s Giant Omelette fete on Friday evening.

I’m presuming it was delivered on this trailer although, in a flight of fancy, I imagine it obligingly rolling up the hill and parking itself in its annual spot before thundering on down to another local community event.

It serves a variety of uses round and about, including accommodating another village’s Giant Paella and then someone else’s Moules Evening.

It’s a very helpful and useful little big pan.

I think I’m going for a lie-down, the heat seems to be getting to me.

That’s about it.

Love, Maddie x

PS You’d think the heat would stem my appetite. However, I live with a foodie who loves to cook and also to eat.

There was a massive storm where we are in south west France last night.

The crack of thunder was so fearfully loud, I fully expected the house to be cleaved right in half when I ventured out with the dogs first thing this morning.

The last time I’d heard such a roaring snap here was a couple of years ago when one of the garden walls was struck by lightning and tumbled into pieces.

This time, fortunately, the house was still standing. The ground was saturated with much-needed rain and the outside water butt was full to the brim.

There was a marvellous freshness to the air which I could almost taste.

The change in the weather is a welcome break from the soaring temperatures we’ve been experiencing for many weeks.

Family, friends and even readers of my People’s Friend column have been in touch, worrried we might have been caught up in the terrible fires that have swept through tinder-dry pine forests near Bordeaux.

We are fine, but the horror continues for so many in France, and in Spain, too. I heard that even Scotland is not immune, with smoke from a wild fire in the Cairngorms blowing into Aberdeen, nearly 60 miles away.

Climate change is the biggest threat to humanity and we ignore it at our peril.

The lower tempteratures continue here for a day or so and then it’s back to the new normal, with the weather app on my phone showing 38 degrees on Wednesday.

Take care, wherever you are.