"Too Darn Hot" - as Cole Porter once observed

It sounds dire chez nous. No fridges, no fans, no nothing. Trouble is if trees have crashed onto the power lines it could take ages to repair.

There are a few raindrops on the window, but the clouds seem to be thinning again. It is still in the mid to high 20s.

Any tips to pass on to OH about keeping cool in 35° with no electricity? I can only think of feet in bowl of cold water. Obviously can't open freezer and don't want to open fridge too much.....

Busy doing nothing!

Love the cartoon Merlotgran. thanks for the mole advice, not sure I want to blow the darn thing up, and where on earth can you buy mole traps and are they humane ones or simply...... Chop!?

Mamie - temperatures here are in the high 30s too, and we've had strong winds, but no loss of electricity (yet.) I know what it's like - we were without for about 10 days in the winter of 2009 after a storm.
Many people have a generator - could your husband not find one in the shops? We borrowed a petrol driven one to save stuff in the freezer.
Otherwise we stay indoors which is quite cool . French people close all the windows and shutters during the day.
It's harvest time, and sometimes you can hear the combine harvesters during the night.

That cartoon could have been drawn for my cat
We've had the fan on in the bedroom all night and the window open for a few nights now. The fan makes hardly any noise.
Last night even DH's half of the duvet was left folded at the end of the bed.

Thanks Tricia. The bizarre thing was that there wasn't any wind - just a tornado!
I have suggested he goes and gets a generator tomorrow. The shutters have been shut for a week and the downstairs rooms are not too bad, but the bedrooms are in the grenier. Although we have a lot of insulation, the heat rises up three floors and the bedrooms are in the high twenties. I have suggested he takes a mattress down to the bottom floor!

I have to confess to being a little too hot on the golf -course this morning so did only 9 instead of 18 - 2 hours was quite enough. I have all the shades drawn in the house now and there is a lovely breeze- shower no 3 coming up and long floaty maxi dress with long floaty drink I think.

and definitely no knickers- they make me hot.

Which film was it in which Marilyn Monroe kept her knickers in the icebox? The Seven Year Itch? Can't quite remember.

Fan on all night you can do what you like when you live alone. Window wide open as well, I can't sleep at all if I'm too hot at night. Sat on the swing seat in the garden at the moment it's lovely and cool because all the sun is at the front of the house at this time of day. It's been 31 degrees in South Wales.

We two hours this morning travelling on buses and it was just awful - some of the time sitting in the back seat which is next to the engine! It was like having a barbecued backside! When we got home we were wringing! After yet another shower and a complete change of clothes, we went to a friend's for lunch (hot), having driven there in thunder and lightening, and then sat in the house because it was too hot to sit in her garden. I am now sitting in my garden with a cold lager, drinking in the scent of honeysuckle, listening to the blackbirds and hoping it will be cooler tommorrow.

Should have added "hope it's cooler tommorrow because I am baking all day for GS's school fete" - they are a bit short on the cake front!

Is there any other nationality in the world that discusses the weather quite so frequently as the British?

I had a fan on all night, on the highest setting, but it didn`t get an cooler, it was just turning hot air around. The noise was getting on my nerves, so at 7am I turned it off and went back to sleep for 2 more hours!

It was 29C in our house last night, I slept badly and kept on getting up to rinse my nightdress in cold water. that would gain me a half hour before the half-awake stage would set in again.

Early bed tonight, I think. It's much better, only mid 20s in the house which is bearable. The rain missed us, sadly. We are going to buy fans.

NZ farmers such as my husband talk about weather all the time. They have those electronic rain stations and whatever the weather is doing they'
re never satisfied!