Most of day nice weather, but a heavy shower lasting about half an hour in the evening, & a light shower at midday. A few grape hyacinths forming heads. Some wallflowers almost in flower. Saw a bat, the first I have seen this year. Fruit trees budding fairly strongly.
Prepared the patch for artichokes, which can be sowed tomorrow if fine.
Weeded large flower bed.
15 eggs. Sold 3 score @ 2/7 (7/- less commission).
Orwell Diaries 1938-1942 
“…..if fine.”
Having pondered Orwell’s persistent use of the word “fine” in relation to weather, I have come to the conclusion that he means “not raining.”
I like the way George inserts the bat into an otherwise pleasant scene.
Luftwaffe aircraft raid the British naval base at Scapa Flow. On the return flight, the planes attack lighthouses at Duncansby Head and Stroma Island.
On this Thursday in 1846, a Victorian Clerk, “Purchased an old print in Westminster, ‘The Portrait of John Milton the Poet at the age of 21 years’ in dark frame glazed. Took pair of heavy boots to Discombe to be sewn, the sole half coming from the uppers. He has took a small shop in Goodge Street, near John Street. Had tea at Butler’s Coffee Shop, Tottenham Court Road.”
JL3 – yes indeed “fine” means not “raining”, still does in British English. Does it sound odd to you?
And bats are lovely little things!
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Yes, there was fine weather that day. And then someone yelled, “BAT!”
What’s unpleasant about bats?
Perhaps I should not stereotype the bat.
And, of course, if Orwell had a herd of bats, he wouldn’t need to purchase fertilizer.
I think in American (around here anyway) “fine” means “pleasant – not hot or cold, sunny…” – at any rate, not just “not raining”.