SAD syndrome?

jeni, the very best globe artichokes I ever saw were in the fields around Valencia and in the beautiful covered market there. They were huge! Wouldn't mind a trip over there sometime.

Nor me!

Have only just started to join the discussions. Its really cheery to read all your comments. Haven't mastered the faces yet! Agree with Jess M that when the sun comes out we should rush out into it if we can! It feels a real bonus if it comes out for half an hour eh! Have posted somewhere else about a funny article in today's Guardian by Charlie Booker 'How to Fix the British Summer' which I found hilarious and can be viewd online if you don't have the paperx

It is maginally better today, so we are having salade nicoise tonight, complete with the entire artichoke crop (one).

Welcome to Gn silverbirch

I got three and a half hours of sunshine this morning - it wasn't planned, but I got lost in a dense forest and had to force my way up a very steep hillside through briars and prickly conifers, then across swampy land (thank goodness for my boots) and finally hit a little road several miles from my flat. I did enjoy my 'adventure' and I feel entitled to have a very rare treat tonight - a few oven chips with mayonnaise!
N.B. Electrified fences won't kill you but they can give you a nasty shock! I put my backpack and poles over the fence then limbo under it.

Greatnan! You couldn't make it up!

I didn't! And I hope to show you that very forest!

greatnan what an adventure!

Well done! GN. Sounds fun.
It is true that electric fences do no harm - just a little jolt. When DS 1 was about 10 and DS2 was 3 we lived in a residential school where they had ponies - and an electric fence. So little one used to tag along with bigger boys in school grounds. Discovered that big brother was encouraging little brother to hold the electric fence! And little brother's comment was that it tickled!
At around the same time I was once trying to change a light bulb in poor light. I was groping around, trying to find the right place in the fitting.
The 3 year old climbed on the bed muttering "there's not much light in here" and turned the switch on. I did not think *that" tickled.

Thanks JessM

I have had a few quite nasty jolts from fences - certainly not what I would describe as a tickle! There are usually plastic handles somewhere along the wire which you can use to unhook it and pass through, but the terrain today was too difficult for me to follow the wire.
I am a lot less adventurous than I used to be, simply because my daughter got really concerned when I told her about having to dig in my poles to stop myself sliding down a 20' drop when walking on wet leaves or scree and having to drag myself back up the slope on hands and knees. I wasn't in any danger today, other than a few scratches from the branches and wet feet from the boggy bits! She got so worried she decided she needed me in New Zealand so she can keep an eye on me.

I really, really, really want some warm weather so my joints start to feel at least a bit better. I often thought it was a myth that arthritis was worse in cold, damp weather but now I know it is true. We have had some fairly warm days but many more cool, wet ones. I take to bed with heat pads, hot water bottles to feel better.

I told my husband yesterday, OK we have moved to mid France but I want to move south for the warmth! Yesterday started like today, cool but by the afternoon it was 22° today the sun is out but no heat with it. I feel so depressed whether that is SAD or just fed up with the pain I don't know. What I do know is I am not happy with my daughter saying we need more rain as she needs to collect Burgundy snails and they only appear after a downpour. Dearest daughter, damn the snails I need warmth for my poor old bones!

I haven't been abroad for years but the last time I was in Cyprus, even though the heat was well nigh unbearable I realised after just a couple of days that I felt ten years younger. For that reason I'm determined to go away for 2 weeks later in the year to get some sun, although worried that I might end up somewhere that isn't hot [it happened one year when we went to Kefalonia]. I even thought about going to Egypt before things started to get a bit dodgy there [well, more dodgy than usual].

A friend's dog (fortunately a big one) once brushed an electric fence with her tail. She leapt about 6 feet in the air and took off over the horizon, fortunately returning home eventually very sorry for herself.

crimson Egypt is fine as long as you don't go to Cairo or Sharm, further south there are places where there is no trouble at all. We went last year and had a great time.

I have just got back from 12 days in Sharm with juragran and there were no problems at all.

There you go crimson book for Egypt and then at least you will be guarnateed some sun.

We got a really good deal through Eastjet Holidays, but we flew from Geneva.

Yes I have touched electric fences myself - did not know what to make of child's tolerance - maybe high pain threshold? Maybe placebo effect - you tell em it will tickle and that's what they think...

When I touched electric fences as a child, I thought it was more like a thump. The charge is given in pulses so that would make sense.

I wonder if it would affect someone with a pace-maker?

Not sure if this actually happened [memory not good] or just one of those rural myths but men needing a wee on the way back from t'pub. Ouch.

There was a story (possible urban myth) about a dog that peed against a metal lamp-post that had a short-circuit. It quite galvanisd him

I am afraid that is an urban myth - I saw it on one of those odd programmes that dispel them. Apparently, the stream of urine is not continuous!