It’s been a long hot summer, perfect on the coast yet very dry, Harwich dry, so dry the grass is brown, leaves are curling on the trees, the hydrangeas are wilting, the dust blows unchecked and the windows remain wide open day and night. Even the threat of gigantic spiders trying to creep in for the winter (eeeek!) hasn’t got the windows closed. This week we’ve had temperatures to match Bangkok, though perhaps not the humidity. We were assured a heavy downpour last Saturday and about four drops of rain fell, one on my head, another in Dovercourt, maybe one more in Clacton and another in Frinton. You get the picture. It’s been so sweltering this week that rain will come as a great relief, and it’s promised…. It’s on its way…. Yet still the sweat runs down my spine, even when sitting still. Lethargy all around. It’s like waiting for the monsoon in Calcutta, even if it is 20 degrees C cooler. Wishing for a ceiling fan I write this as the sky grows ominously dark.

Clive just texted from his delivery round (for that well known American owned supermarket). Deluge has hit in Woodbridge just north of us, and still we wait….