Rain, rain, don't go away...

For the past couple of weeks we've had glorious sunshine, almost continually. Well, not at night-time, of course, and as it's dark by about 5.15pm since the clock the sunshine doesn't last that long. But it's been pleasantly warm; yesterday it was more than 25C around lunchtime. I've been wearing a sweatshirt in the evening, and we're using a thin duvet on the bed, but that's all.

However, the weather often seems to break around the end of the first week of November.

This morning, I woke while it was still dark to hear thunder rumbling around the neighbourhood. I thought I heard some rain, too. However the cats were asleep and I really didn't want to get up, so I drifted off again until about 6.30 - later than usual, but Sophia didn't wake me for once. It looked a bit damp outside, with the sky rather grey; as I got up, it started raining again in earnest.

In Cyprus, when it rains, it really chucks it down. As much rain falls in half an hour as we sometimes get in half a day in the UK. And it continued raining for at least half an hour. I had to fetch a bucket to put on the stairs, since the ceiling leaked... but that always happens in heavy rain, particularly if it's windy too. The cats complained that I wasn't switching the rain off, of course.

Then it stopped.

Now in Cyprus, when the rain stops, the rule is that the sun comes out, and dries up all the rain.

But that didn't happen. It stayed grey, and about half an hour later it came on to rain again. Just as heavily. And it continued, off and on, for most of the morning.

We do need the rain. But rain in Larnaka, apparently, doesn't help much. The papers reported at the end of October that while Larnaka and Nicosia had above average rain for the month, there was almost none in the Limassol and Paphos areas where the reservoirs are. So they were still only around 3% full. I do hope today's rain fell somewhere useful. Of course, I didn't have to water the plants, which is a good thing. Nor did any of our neighbours. But they were probably out in the evening, when the rain had stopped, hosing down their patios and pavements to get rid of the mud and leaves that would have fallen...

I wore a sweatshirt all day today. The forecast is for only 13C tonight, so I might change to our warmer duvet tomorrow, if it feels chilly. Maybe it will warm up again... but it feels as if the end of Summer has now gone, and the start of Winter is here. Autumn in Cyprus is something of a non-event, since the trees all have their own personal schedules.

I suppose we need to think about getting our central heating working again...