Just wait a few minutes …. the weather will change

First snow, then sun.  What's next?

One thing that struck me since moving to the Pyrenees Mountains in Southern France is how quickly the weather changes.  Currently, the Midwest, where I grew up, has temperatures hovering above freezing after reveling in 60 F degrees and record highs.  In my recollection of things, there was always a warm up and cool down time as the seasons changed.  It’s somewhat “normal”, if we can call any weather pattern normal these days.  The changes that struck me the most since arriving here is that these extremes can happen all within one day.  Right now, it’s snowing; ten minutes earlier, it was sunny.  I can literally be outside working in a t-shirt one day and be trapped in the house the next due to strong winds and a foot of snow on the ground.  I’ve never experiences such extremes in such a short amount of time, unless you counted the mood swings from my high school Spanish teacher.  That aside, I never know what to expect; the laundry takes days to dry on the line and I don’t know what to wear.  Perhaps that is why Europeans are known for dressing in layers; one can simply peel off or slip on whatever whenever it’s needed.

The snow has stopped and it’s clouding up.  We’re either in for a warm up or a blizzard is coming.  I’ll get out my swimsuit…. and my wool hat.