The hot weather has definitely broken and it’s jumpers before sunset, but only just before. That said, the Island seems to have missed the thunderstorms reportedly covering the south of England and working their way north. My rusty knowledge of meteorology implies this might be the relative lack of ground heat rising from the surrounding sea, assuming that ground heat is an important ingredient of thunder clouds. Also there’s still very little wind so no chance of weather created elsewhere blowing in. But above all is the empirical evidence that weather on the Island never relates to the forecast, so if it’s supposed to be stormy in the south it won’t be here.
There were a couple of showers though – one in the early morning and another in the afternoon – which have cooled things down a bit and a fairly consistent cloud cover kept the sun at bay, but while it hasn’t been sweaty the rain has dried rapidly, so much so I was working in a downpour without really getting wet. If anything the weather today has been perfect, as transitional weather so often seems to be.
Lots of little jobs today as the main job was abandoned on health and safety grounds when I very nearly fell off a ladder twice. Trimming the top of the fir tree hedge is proving to be a harder job than the original cut. The first time round I was able to work in and up the trees but this time I have to attack from above. This means using a very long ladder and laying it at a 45 degree angle to the tree so that when I’m at the top I’m overlooking the trees rather that looking up at them. Already you can see this is not safe as the ladder can slip backwards if no-one’s holding it steady. Then there’s what the ladder is actually resting on. If the trunk is visible then it can rest on that but otherwise it winds up on branches or hooked over branches. Now imagine if the bottom of the ladder slips slightly while the top is hooked over a branch. The whole ladder moves back putting all the weight on the branch rather than the trunk. At the same time the two parts to the ladder are seperated thanks to the top being hooked. And I’m right at the top with my heart popping through my throat and a sudden realisiation that I’m a bit too high to jump safely while the only thing keeping me and the ladder up is a branch about as thick as a stick of rock. Fuck. Slowly I edged down the ladder trying to keep it from flipping over and holding on to branches to minimise the pressure before jumping down. As this was the second time it had gone screwy I decided enough was enough. Especially as this was a pretty much cosmetic operation. Generally I don’t have much fear of clambering over things and taking risks but this was the limit. The job will be done but not without someone standing at the bottom of the ladder.