Mum had a saying, she had many: it never rains, it just pours. OK, it was not a mum original but one of her favourites. We are now having typical mum weather. For some time we were celebrating real Spring weather with warm temperatures and everything in the garden growing and flowering. Despite the building of the scaffolding around our living quarters, we still saw the sun poking through. I even wore my short home trousers and t-shirts outside.

Then the polar frost hit us, not quite but almost. The sun was still shining, we had clear blue skies, but temperatures, especially at night, dropped below freezing point. The plants in the garden survived, although decided to stop flowering for a while. We were all waiting for things to get better, and perhaps a little rain. We had not seen rain for at least a month. I had even begun to water the garden myself.

Yesterday the rain came. It began in the night, nothing dramatic, and yesterday afternoon it only rained once, the complete afternoon. I was not sorry. I sat at home, looking out the window, with no guilty complex about staying inside and not going places. The weather stress had disappeared, it was raining. It was a grey/gray wet world. Even the WP one word daily prompt was “Gray” or was it “Grey”. I discovered both words – a sort of trans atlantic difference of opinion.

And today it is not raining, it is pouring mum. Yes the pitter patter of rain drops is the accompanying background music. Even the scaffolding building team have not turned up this week. Perhaps they do not like working in the rain, although last week they worked through a freak snow shower which only lasted half an hour before the sun came out again. Not that I miss the workers, it is nice and quiet on the building site. My only problem is that photos for my camera are now scarce. The scaffolding on the West Side is now half complete, covering only the ground and first floor and there is a floor to go. They are probably saving the best for last.

However life goes on. We had our new curtains fixed at the beginning of the week, but we all forgot Tabby, our cat. She has a cat flap in the kitchen window, and we arranged that over the cat flap the curtain stripes would be made shorter to allow her a free entrance and exit, but we all forgot, the curtain guy and us. We called them yesterday and today they will arrive to shorten the four stripes hanging over Tabby’s special entrance. Actually we never draw the curtains stripes in the kitchen during the day. The window is always free and often open: cooking tends to produce grease and smells. We only really draw the curtain stripes at night. Summer is approaching and Tabby likes to sleep outside and come and go as she pleases during the night. Anyhow no problem, it will be fixed today, but we do not know when. Yes, another chance for me to go shopping with the car on my own. I do not mind, although Mr. Swiss gets a little cabin fever in the morning at home. He compensates in the afternoon with a trip to town now and again.

I must now go as when I go shopping I like to go early – I have things to buy, shop assitants to talk to, perhaps meet some other golden oldies and above all spend a few minutes taking photos of the latest flower and plant arrivals in the store As a goodbye photo here is my rosemary from the garden. I have never known it to flower so much as this year. I know in other countries it is almost an invader, but in Switzerland we can be glad for such plants to survive the Winter frost and this plant is now approaching 6 years in its bed.