Under Adverse Conditions

I fear I am suffering from holiday withdrawal symptoms. The world looks grey and cheerless to me, and cold. Midsummer evokes memories of sandals, dresses, brown limbs, meals outside, long warm evenings when the sky is never really dark and drinks on the patio watching the world go by.

Instead we poor mortals north of the border have had the coldest June since 1972. Yesterday the Met office forecast told us, as if it had to, that it felt like 9 degrees in the wind- 9 degrees! We've had warmer days in February.

This sketch of Lews Castle in Stornoway was done in particularly arduous conditions last week. A stiff wind blew my hair over my eyes and froze my fingers while His Lordship, sketching beside me, whimpered his distress as his core temperature dropped to a level it took several days of complaining to rectify.

Please Gulf Stream, move up a bit and give us some warmth for the summer solstice.