This May has been a strange month on Mallorca: cooler than usual, and with some rain (which was, admittedly, much needed after an extremely dry winter). We have yet to fire up the BBQ or eat dinner outdoors, but hope this will all change very soon. A few days ago, while looking for something in an old diary, I read that we’d had a high of 31 degrees Celsius on the same date in that year.
My dad, uncle, brother, his three daughters, and one son-in-law are about to descend on Mallorca for a spring holiday. They were due to be our first visitors of the year but, in mid-April, two of my nieces – who suddenly had a free long weekend – put in a last-minute request to come and stay. It was to be a warm-up for their longer holiday, which begins this weekend.
You say warm; we say cool
Living in a different country to the rest of our families, we like to accommodate even short-notice requests, so we happily said yes and hastily prepared our guest quarters. And crossed our fingers for good weather. My nieces were lucky, donning their bikinis for some beach time and even acquiring a little colour as a result of their time in the sun. We, however, were still wearing sweaters and saying it was cool for the time of year.
Early spring is a time when it’s easy to spot the foreigners who live on Mallorca and those who are just visiting. Visitors from northern Europe are flashing their limbs in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals, enjoying the relative balminess of temperatures in the upper teens and lower 20s. Many of us who live here are still wearing sweaters and jeans.
Because of the unsettled weather this May, we are later than we have ever been in setting up our outdoor spaces for the summer. This morning began with a clear blue sky and pleasantly warm sunshine, so The Boss dragged out his pressure washer (an essential piece of kit, in our opinion), and blitzed the winter muck off all the terraces. We then set up all the outdoor furniture in readiness for BBQs and time to be spent outside … as thunder rumbled in the distance.
And just as we’d finished, this happened …
You have a lovely blog. Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. Here the temperatures were as low as 3 celsius on a couple of days, which was quite chilly, but our summers here are pretty hot and humid so I didn’t complain, as when it is cool you can always put on a sweater, jacket or coat. 🙂
Thank you, Linda, very kind of you to say so. I have had a look at your blog too. It’s full of good stuff and I love the cat pix (being a big cat lover myself). I shall make a point of checking in from time to time. Warm greetings from Mallorca (around 28 degrees C warm!).
I guess the blood really does get thinner when you live in hot climes?! I know when weve visited Florida, and the locals all wear jackets when its in the late 60’s temperature wise! For us its like a normal summers day!
You’re right. It’s still what we’d call pleasantly warm (early 20s), but some locals are already swathed in scarves and wearing boots!