We arrived in Cervinara on June 1, ready for another summer of fresh air and sunshine and of course, a little bit of summer heat. We have been in sweaters, raincoats and blankets ever since! This year it seems that summer just doesn't want to show up.
At first we blamed the cold and damp inside the house on the fact that it had been closed up for six months with no heat to dry things out. While we waited for some sunny days to warm up our meter thick walls we bundled up in jeans, sweaters and overcoats. Then it started raining. And raining. And raining some more. We had hail that ruined the plantings I had put in, but that is nothing compared to the farmers who saw their tomatoes get hammered and their potatoes rotting in the ground.
Eventually the full days of rain tapered off to afternoon storms. A sunny sky would turn black and ominous in a matter of minutes. I had a load of clothes out on the line for the better part of a week. No sooner would they start to dry out than another freak thunder storm would get them dripping again. It was at this point that we ran away to Budapest for a week where we enjoyed seven straight days of warmth and sun with only occasional gusts of wind requiring us to put on a jacket. Pure heaven.
We came back to Cervinara at the beginning of July, ready for another summer of fresh air and sunshine and of course, a little bit of summer heat. We have been in sweaters, raincoats and blankets ever since. Wait! Didn't I just write that? Could it be that July would be as wet and miserable as June? So it has seemed. But today, when I got up at 6:30 for my walk to the loo, there was a warm breeze in the air. And there was sun surging up behind the hills. At 10:30 as we strolled through the market, we actually complained about the heat. And we turned on the AC in the car for the ride home!
I don't want to think that Mother Nature is toying with us. I don't want this to be another tease of a day, only to be followed by damp and chills. I want this to be the real thing. I want to complain about the heat and need to sit INSIDE to cool off instead of outside to warm up! Could this be summer? I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
