Four Seasons in One Day

Sunday 22nd February

Possibly my third ever favourite band had a big hit with a song called “Four Seasons In One Day”.  Crowded House, from their third album “Woodface” – to be precise.  And when we have a day like yesterday (today) it always springs to mind.

The day started off damp, it had rained all night and it was much milder.  It had been clear blue skies and frost on the ground when I usually took the dogs out, but today it was warmer but very damp.  And in the way that damp, almost Autumnal weather does it really seemed to seep into your bones.  There was even a mist hovering over the river and the sky was grey and almost forbidding.

As the morning progressed the sun came out and it was warm and bright and felt like spring.  But a spring that was interspersed with sudden squalls of wind and almost torrential rain that lasted a few minutes and then passed.  Out came the sun and soon the roads were dry again and it was as if there had been no storm at all.  I was painting two more walls in the soon to be opened tea-shop and with its big picture windows you couldn’t miss the weather at all.   At times it felt almost summery.  And there were a few people out, simply walking around or shopping at the Tabac or the Boulangerie.

At one point I had to take the dogs home.  I fed them and quickly washed my brushes and collected some more paraphernalia for the shop.   As I stepped out of the door and locked the house up it grew quite dark and it looked as if it would rain again.  Literally a few steps down the road and it began.  But not light summer rain or even a wintry shower this time but an absolute ice-shower.  This was more than hail stones, it was literally small chunks of snowy ice, some as big as a twenty centime piece, and they were pelting down almost like a sheet of icy whiteness.  Luckily I had my hat and outdoor coat on, and though the shop is literally two hundred yards from the house the road was completely covered with ice before I got there and it was like a wintry scene, except that there was a torrent of icy water and slush running down both sides of the road.  I got to the shop and was covered in quickly melting ice.  Five minutes later it was brilliant sunshine again and the road was soon drying and all that ice melted and gone.  We really did have four seasons in one day.