Sunny Days

We're having a spectacularly sunny week here in England. From a human perspective, it couldn't get much better -- comfortable temperatures, blue skies, hardly a visible cloud.

I've been taking advantage of the weather with lots of walking and photography. I walked more than five miles yesterday through Hackney, in northeast London, and on Monday I went to Brick Lane, the popular street art area. I have so many photos that I'll be uploading them to Flickr for a month!

There is a downside to this weather, though. Much of England is suffering a drought because rainfall has been lower than normal for two consecutive winters, and the authorities are talking about instituting "hosepipe bans." (I'm still not clear on exactly what a "hosepipe ban" is, but I think it's basically the equivalent of watering restrictions.) Fortunately, we have neither a lawn to water nor a car to wash, and I venture to say our water usage is pretty low.

I do worry about all the creatures that depend on water, though -- all the fish and amphibians. On Saturday I asked my friend Sally, who in past years made the appearance of tadpoles in her garden pond a feature on her blog, whether she'd seen any yet this year, and she said no. Maybe that's more a matter of chance than water shortage, but I can't help but think it's a tough year to be a frog.

(Photo: Hackney, yesterday.)