Feeble Showers

The birth of this blog coincides with one of the driest springs this region has known.Our neighbour, Mme Rossignol,who is in her late eighties, says it's cyclique and that during her long life she has seen this all before. Like most people around here and especially the agriculteurs, we get our weather forecasts from the internet and French television. Since there is strong belief that the region is a microclimate, we tend to mistrust the national television forecasts which are too general for our purpose and log on to the local weather website ( l'ésprit du clocher is still alive and well! ) I wonder if there is much difference between this and trying to forecast the weather by interpreting the signs as Mme. Rossignol assures me her ancestors did very successfully, more successfully than la météo.
Anyway, today's forecast hinted at faibles averses which, roughly translated, means s*d all!
    The situation is serious. No appreciable rainfall has occurred since last February.The local farmers have all but exhausted the subterranean water supplies and have for the past few summers been  pumping water from the rivers in order to irrigate their maize fields. This water has not been replaced by winter rainfall for the last few years. This year, because of the warm dry spring, the hay was ready for cutting in early May and now the harvest has already begun. The paysage looks like it usually does in late summer.
     This region is known, like most of the south-western corner of France, for its sunflowers. July and early August see the fields and hillsides covered in dinner plate sized flower heads. Sunflowers are usually planted quite late to ensure warm sunny growing conditions. This year those conditions which have been with us since March, have meant that the earth is hard and parched and the new crop straggly and undersized compared to what it should be now.Only the vines seem to be enjoying the warm dry conditions. This year's cru should be a good one!