Malvern has it's own micro-climate. The presence of the Malvern Hills throws in that edge of uncertainty that helps make Malvern such a thrilling place to live - or, looking out of the window now as I struggle to plan and schedule a number of exterior painting works, bloody miserable and chilly.
Nonetheless, I have seen the future! Or at least I have seen next week's weather forecast. At last, at long last, after a hard winter(!) we are through the days of mist and approaching the time of plenty! There is sunshine ahoy! Next week, my smartphone weather app has every day a smiling yellow face and mostly clear days. Begone foul fog and chilblain misery! Spring, it seems, is finally sprung after a few faltering steps.
To add to that, the annual return of the swallows to Worcestershire might coincide with the fine firmament. (This always brings a cheer to my heart, especially as in the summer months we might be working outside and we get to witness their acrobatic displays of feeding and drinking on the wing).
Still, we can never take the weather for granted. Us house painters in Malvern are not alone in this either. Take my Worcester plastering friends who have a number of rendering jobs lined up - plastering and rendering in the current weather is akin to purgatory - still, it could be worse. After all, who amongst us could ever forget that fateful day of October 14th, and the Great Malvern Tornado of 1761, later described as a volcano, which occurred just after tea time at quarter past four and laid waste a turnip field and caused 'universal consternation wherever it was seen or heard'? (It happened. Look it up!)
(Although I do question the account of it, written as it was by one Sylvanus Urban of the Gentleman's Magazine - frankly he sounds like someone who has walked off a Harry Potter set, but there you go!).
Anyhow, aside from a nice diversion into an interesting period of local history, the weather is going to be better!
And I for one, and my Malvern Decorating chums, are very grateful for it too!