Despite The Absence Of A Mediterranean Climate This Summer We Can Still Bbq Outdoors

I was aware of lots of moans over the course of the weekend that the conditions in the Black Country are utterly rubbish and the chances of fetching the old bbq out look to have finished for the year. This is drivel of course, though I know what they mean.

At the time the schools stop for the summer, it registers in the mind that here is summer which means clear skies, hot sunshine, long afternoons to spend lazily in the garden, the aroma of grass cuttings in the air and cricket on the village green in the afternoons. Such are the lazy, happy stereotypes.

It is for the most part a myth of course, the best part of the summer occurs in June, and as soon as you get past the 21st June then the days gradually get shorter. The weather is usually warmer than the corresponding months prior to mid-summer day of course because the tilt of the Earth is pushing the northern hemisphere more towards the sun.

The popular events of the summer, starting with the Chelsea Flower Show, Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and through to the Open Championship mostly take place before the schools end for the long holiday, for the motive that they want to be as certain as they can be that they’ll get the most of the conditions.

And so, for anyone who may be taking their annual breaks to correspond with those of their kids and expecting good weather, there might be a memory trick played from the times of childhood summers playing in the hot sun (in particular those of us who were young in 1976) so that when it does not happen, adults get sulky that the weather isn’t what is expected.

But this is no justification to keep the bbq under the covers because unless the prevailing weather is like the summers of 2007 and 2008 when the downpours set in for weeks, it will still be warm and dry even if it isn’t like the Maldives. And naturally a gas bbq means that even if the weather is poor, there’s never going to be a problem in lighting the it which naturally can be a challenge with a charcoal bbq in particular if the water has got into the fire pit.

An afternoon where the meteorological conditions aren’t ideal can also add to the event if friends or family are also present. Gags at the expense of the host provide a fun atmosphere. Funny instructions as to how to get a sulky charcoal bbq going may make everyone else laugh, witticisms like “why didn’t you get a gas bbq?

This happened to me at Christmas 2002, standing out in the pouring rain while everybody else was standing behind the window performing various “oh, is it raining?” mimes until they nopticed that I was getting utterly drenched, at which point one of the girls came out with a golf umbrella which she held abov herself and the bbq and not me as she had realised that because there was no lid, the tuck on the grill was becoming wet. And so, in such ways does one learn one’s level in the world pecking order and my own is somewhere behind a beef burger. But it did establish an in joke so that whenever it rained, someone would establish if I was cooking. Not humourous in itself, but in the proper context and company, always likely to get a giggle.

So it’s not the climate that is important, although it does come into the equation, there is no requirement to pray for a balmy, sunny afternoon or early evening in order to enjoy a bbq. Just roll it out, fire it up and enjoy.

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