Fáilte fellow Galwegian!! I see the things are normal on the Wesht

Still boiling up here at 950m, thank goodness for the little breeze and thos thick stone walls... the lawn (ok grass) is parched and earth cracking- reminds me of Summer in uk 1976! Thank goodness for all the lakes and great swimming pools... and the 3 x 1000 litres water containers hidden at side of house and used with an electrical pump and the big Roman style (plastic- but looks great) 500l urn at side of patio (filled by roof of shed).

Off ot do cleaning and make up beds for next lot of visitors arriving tomorrow.

Is it open on the top?

Nope, but it is fed by the gutter spout- it fills very quickly (no, before you ask, this is not me! I am an old biddy as you well know)

Same here. No end in sight either. Might get a thunderstorm or two over the weekend, but no rain and not looking like it's going to bring the temps down at all.

You have started to run a B&B?

LOL no- just the word's got around that we have finally decorated the guest 'suite' and installed a new bathroom- so friends and familiy from all over are queuing up at the door - right through to mid September- lovely but busy. We run a 1 - 2 - 3 house rule (we cook one night, got out Dutch the next and they cook the 3rd, and share petrol, etc- and eveyone muck in- so i love it)....

Exceptionally well preserved old biddy :P

ps. Brace for another heatwave :]

I know! Temps due to get up to 34/35 again here next week!

At this rate there won't be many fireworks on August 1st because of the fire hazard.

There will be on lake Geneva on 9th August though No fire risk there

I keep checking on water restrictions here in Vaud/Lausanne but so far I've seen nothing. I, and two other neighbors, watered our lawns today, but I felt kind of guilty. I didn't live here for the last "canicule" (heatwave) in 2003. Do they not start to regulate water usage for things like watering the lawn, washing the car, etc.?

I mean, it hasn't rained any significant amount in Lausanne in at least 4 weeks and it doesn't look like we can expect any for at least another 10 days.

As bad as it is, I just can't help thinking about all of those people vacationing in Tuscany. It's got to be 39 or 40 down there. Ugh.

Never had water restrictions in Lausanne in the 18 years I've lived in the area. Our water can come from the lake if necessary.

Heatwave from tomorrow till Sunday unfortunately... back to cooking super early in the morning Hope a storm or two will show up...

The temp guage on our sunny wall hit 42.5 late afternoon yesterday!

Methinks an egg salad will do for dinner tonight. Certainly don't want to cook in this weather.

Try lettuce, tuna, sweet corn, tomatoes and olive salad accompanied by crispy baguette and finish with ice cold glass of white wine We always do it in hot weather for a dinner.

Yep, it's started - in a notification made today, open fires and the letting off of fireworks will be banned, as from tomorrow, for the whole Kanton of Fribourg.

http://www.fr.ch/ww/de/pub/functions...l&NewsID=50853

Watch out for other Kantons to follow suit - if not already.

Lighting fires in forests is already banned in nearly half the cantons, but I expect more restrictions to happen pretty soon since there's really no rain in sight...

Around Basel, we have a fire ban as well, which has put a stop to having BBQs in the woods, even in the official areas.

It's predicted to rain over the weekend, quite heavily with thunderstorms, but the last time they predicted that we had about 30 seconds of light rain whilst the weather god stuck his middle finger up art us and laughed, mumbling about extra humidity.

Might get thunderstorms and a bit of rain Saturday/Sunday, but I doubt it'll be enough to lift the ban, although could be slightly cooler than at present heat-wise. Then back to the hotter weather again early next week.

Correct.. since last week no fires or bbq in lange erlen and other forest areas. Some areas surrounding are going as far as no gas bbq also.

I don't like cooking when it's hot either. Salad, cold rice, bread rolls here I think!

Yes, I noticed too! It seems to me that thunderstorms predicted here do arrive, but about a week later than forecast