Let’s talk about the weather

Several years ago we were in India – staying about 35 miles outside Jaipur in the former hunting lodge of the Maharaja of Jaipur. There are beautiful gardens and wonderful scenery. We were sitting in brilliant sunshine having tea (of course) and suddenly I could smell rain, just as I could as a child in Johannesburg.  I said so and everyone looked at me as if I was mad. There was not a cloud in the sky – within the hour the clouds swept over and the rain poured down. It was surreal.

In Johannesburg we never really discussed the weather.  In the winter it was very dry – the humidity levels could drop below ten per cent, the temperature was often below freezing at night and sunny and quite warm during the day. The sun shone and the temperature was mostly in the low 60s Fahrenheit or high teens Centigrade: nothing to talk about there.

At the end of winter, the grass now dried out and yellow where we lived on the outskirts of Johannesburg there was always a risk of veld fires.  The veld grass was long and tinder dry and the smallest spark would set the fields alight. The call would go out to all the men in the neighbourhood, employers and employees alike, and they would burn a fire break at the side of our and neighbouring properties.  This was for two reasons – to stop the fire engulfing the edges of the properties and to prevent the snakes, mice and rats from fleeing the flames into said property.

At the end of winter we would have the discussion about when the spring rains would arrive.  As soon as they did the black, scorched veld would turn green and our yellow lawn would as well. The only other weather discussions during the summer were about whether there would be sufficient rain. It rained almost every evening and sometimes there were, to me, quite terrifying thunderstorms.  Very often the lights would go, sometimes the telephone too. We knew that if we were outside we never sheltered under a tree and tried to get as flat as possible.  Every house had a lightning conductor on the roof, earthed so that the electric charge would go into the ground – sometimes it worked and sometimes not.

I was unprepared for the endless discussions about the weather in England of which I am now an enthusiastic participant. I didn’t realise that you could experience such variations.  My daughter’s wedding was in mid-June and the temperature was just over 10C (50F).  We have had lunch in the garden in March (especially this year) and turned the heating back on in May.

I was relieved that thunderstorms were no longer an issue but was brought low by the greyness. In Johannesburg if the sun shone in winter it warmed up – in London if the sun shone in winter it was colder than if the skies were grey, which was very confusing.  The past few days have been mostly grey but with not much rain, which is what reminded me.