Weather to come.......

[Woody girl]

Sorry WG this rain is my fault.

I always try to get my annual hedge cut and mowing done before the wet sets in. I used to start at the end of October.

It’s crept earlier over the last five years as I’ve tried to beat it.
This year I thought bugger it and started in the last days of September. This weather is the result.

I got the biggest hedge trimmed yesterday in the drizzle. There is an added frisson when using mains powered machinery in wet weather!

Just the usual trim!
View attachment 90903View attachment 90904

I've given up waiting for the ark , got an inflatable canoe instead!

Thanks for sending me so much rain. My water barrel was thirsty,....butt ..its fine now, so I'm sending some of the rain back to you.
Actualy today was dry, warm and I managed to get some of the washing out for a few hours.
Since my machine gasped its last, its become a real chore to get stuff dry. I'm on the hunt for large stacking buckets to make my off grid washing machine that I promised myself I was gonna make during lockdown. Time to get busy, walk my talk, and actualy do it.

 

[Woody girl]

Phew! A real scorcher today. 27 degrees outside in the shade, but the top of the garden was 36, and the house is a stifling 24, despite doing all the right things, windows and curtains closed, and reflective window shades also installed on south facing windows. Been to the vicars garden party today, and even this sun lover spent the whole afternoon under a tree in the shade. I drank about six cups of tea and two elderflower cordials, plus several glasses of water.
Should have seen me in a new Italian designer dress and hat, complete with pearl necklace,a change from my scruffy jeans and t shirt which has been my uniform for the past 30+years. Even had a proper haircut instead of the usual DIY job.

And of course, typically, my bedroom fan has ground to a halt with a nasty electrical smell ten minutes ago. Grrrr! Time for a new one, tho sadly too late to get one for tonight.
Wish I had a flat enough area in the garden to pitch the bug tent, and I'd sleep outside. Feeling far too hot and grumpy.

 

[Keith_Beef]

Should have seen me in a new Italian designer dress and hat, complete with pearl necklace,a change from my scruffy jeans and t shirt which has been my uniform for the past 30+years. Even had a proper haircut instead of the usual DIY job.

Pix or it didn't happen!

 

[Woody girl]

Pix or it didn't happen!

I didn't get any on my phone, but there were some taken by others, I'll try and get a copy.....are you sure you can handle a pic of old ladies at a vicarage garden party?
Here is one I took, with the only children there.

 

[Pattree]

It’s getting stupid hot!

I’m going to try to adapt to climate change if this hot weather continues.
I’m going to try four hours sleep at night and two or three hours in the middle of the day. It is just too hot! This isn’t a whinge, I’m perfectly capable of being stoical. This is doing something about it.

I have a holiday next week so get that over and see how hot it is then. I can do so much more in the cooler times.

Am I daft?

 

[Woody girl]

It’s getting stupid hot!

I’m going to try to adapt to climate change if this hot weather continues.
I’m going to try four hours sleep at night and two or three hours in the middle of the day. It is just too hot! This isn’t a whinge, I’m perfectly capable of being stoical. This is doing something about it.

I have a holiday next week so get that over and see how hot it is then. I can do so much more in the cooler times.

Am I daft?

Definitely nor. I've been going to bed early, about 8pm, and getting up about 4.30, and working in the garden early morning from about 5am, then going indoors about 11am and staying inside with my cooling fan, untill about 4 or 5pm, then back out to go to the shop and eat, then do the watering. Today has been out of kilter as I had the electrician in the morning and then the garden party this afternoon, I should be asleep by now, but its so hot without my fan that i can't sleep. If this sort of heat becomes more frequent, we may well have to adopt the siesta.

 

[GreyCat]

I am glad that we have (a) finally moved to the new place and (b) the nature of the new place.

Up a hill in west Wales, lots of trees about. Old stone house with thick walls coated with white lime render (and insulated on inside) and a slate (not pottery tile) roof, new part block walls/insulated and also rendered. The alignment is also good- some sun during day, shelter from sun by trees in evening (get more direct sun in winter than summer interestingly).

Thick lime white walls and being surrounded by trees helps a lot I think, expanses of road and concrete just seem to make it so much hotter. I'm sure the trees, greenery and stream make something of a microclimate, as we came up the road yesterday the temperature dropped a couple of degrees.

I have come to the view that you cannot beat the local traditional materials. @Woody girl , I bet you'd be a lot cooler if you lived in a traditional cob walled and thatched roof Devon house !

GC

 

[Woody girl]

I am glad that we have (a) finally moved to the new place and (b) the nature of the new place.

Up a hill in west Wales, lots of trees about. Old stone house with thick walls coated with white lime render (and insulated on inside) and a slate (not pottery tile) roof, new part block walls/insulated and also rendered. The alignment is also good- some sun during day, shelter from sun by trees in evening (get more direct sun in winter than summer interestingly).

Thick lime white walls and being surrounded by trees helps a lot I think, expanses of road and concrete just seem to make it so much hotter. I'm sure the trees, greenery and stream make something of a microclimate, as we came up the road yesterday the temperature dropped a couple of degrees.

I have come to the view that you cannot beat the local traditional materials. @Woody girl , I bet you'd be a lot cooler if you lived in a traditional cob walled and thatched roof Devon house !

GC

Sadly, my bank balance won't aĺow that dream. I might be able to afford an old and tatty second hand 10 foot caravan tho!

 

[Broch]

One of the benefits of living in a converted threshing barn up in the hills is we can usually rely on a nice breeze. Today is sitting at a cool 27C and a gentle breeze blowing through; quite pleasant really.

I spent part of my childhood in North Africa and we soon learnt that the secret to surviving the heat was to do everything slowly - don't rush, stay calm, and keep out of the direct sun. We were supposed to siesta in the afternoon, but I would climb down from the balcony and escape

 

[GreyCat]

Yeah, this was a long time in coming, over 30 years of saving and 3 years of hard graft.

But there's some serious lessons from the past about comfortable buildings..... not all are good, but some work, and rather than reinvent the wheel and all that.....

.... and trees- including street trees. The Victorians understood a bit about that! Too many "leaf-haters" about these days tho unfortuately (they also complain about heat not realising the useful role that trees play in making a street comfortable for walking along in summer).

I was a rebel in the previous place, I planted trees whilst everyone else was cutting them down and replacing them with block-paved fronts because they couldn't cope with leaves in autumn, it made quite a difference to the front of the house in summer. The block-paving of driveways lot eventually stopped trying to flog me their damaging wares!!!

GC

 

[Chris]

One of the benefits of living in a converted threshing barn up in the hills is we can usually rely on a nice breeze. Today is sitting at a cool 27C and a gentle breeze blowing through; quite pleasant really.

I spent part of my childhood in North Africa and we soon learnt that the secret to surviving the heat was to do everything slowly - don't rush, stay calm, and keep out of the direct sun. We were supposed to siesta in the afternoon, but I would climb down from the balcony and escape

I remember watching some of the Ray Mears episodes when I was younger and thinking how effortlessly some of the tribesmen in Africa (I think Tanzanian; Hadza and Maasai) moved when travelling, including when out hunting.

Not a single calorie more than necessary expended.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

OK..........I give up. And it's only mid june, oh lordy.

 

[Broch]

Yeah, this was a long time in coming, over 30 years of saving and 3 years of hard graft.

But there's some serious lessons from the past about comfortable buildings..... not all are good, but some work, and rather than reinvent the wheel and all that.....

.... and trees- including street trees. The Victorians understood a bit about that! Too many "leaf-haters" about these days tho unfortuately (they also complain about heat not realising the useful role that trees play in making a street comfortable for walking along in summer).

I was a rebel in the previous place, I planted trees whilst everyone else was cutting them down and replacing them with block-paved fronts because they couldn't cope with leaves in autumn, it made quite a difference to the front of the house in summer. The block-paving of driveways lot eventually stopped trying to flog me their damaging wares!!!

GC

Sadly, many are moving into the villages in this area, and the first thing they do is cut down the trees. When asked why? they just simply say they can't be bothered to sweep up the leaves

 

[Keith_Beef]

OK..........I give up. And it's only mid june, oh lordy.

Here, 31°C (in the shade, easily 40°C in full sun) but humidity only 30%. Forecast for the coming week is for more or less the same.

 

[Pattree]

I get uncomfortable above 25.

My tipi is polycotton which does not totally protect against full Summer UV.
I really am a winter camper by preference.

 

[Toddy]

My car this evening going down to the station was 29˚C inside.
The house got up to 28˚C this afternoon.
The thermometer in the front garden sat at 44˚C all afternoon.

I am beyond glad that tomorrow's the solstice and the angle of the Sun will lessen over the hottest of the Summer and my garden won't trap quite so much heat.

I do not do heat well. I'm in my fourth frock of the day, and I'm giving serious consideration to building up the garden hammock to sleep outside in the cool tonight.

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Up in the proper North on the John O'Groats trail and the heatwave translated into a balmy 18C with a shell needed when stopped in the wind.

Had to wear gloves to keep the sizzling sun off the backs of my hands and a big muckle hat as the Factor 50 was being sweated off.

 

[GreyCat]

Sadly, many are moving into the villages in this area, and the first thing they do is cut down the trees. When asked why? they just simply say they can't be bothered to sweep up the leaves

The previous place, when the estate was built in the late 1980's, they put a good mix of trees in, very nice.

Over the years, folks moved out, trees gew, new people moved in- and they wanted to get a second car on the drive, so they chopped the trees down and paved it. Encouraged by the paving gangs who would hit an area offering "special deals" whilst they were in the area.

So I planted a birch tree in the front and an ornamental cherry in the back, only had a drive for one vehicle and it was the original surface. When the trees got a bit big, we had a proper tree surgeon trim them, not cheap but worth it as they maintained a good shape and health level.

Our neighbour was forever moaning about the leaves from the trees, especially the birch. Tnankfully, most years the wind would deal with the problem. The neighbour had a paved drive and was constantly out sweeping it, not a speck of mud of leaf was allowed!. A friend down the street used to refer to such people as "leaf haters" and unfortunately they were the norm..... same people also blamed cats/magpies for the crash of the small bird population, clearly not realising that if you remove garden plants and trees and replace them with a paved driveway and SUV, the birds have no-where to go/feed from.

Mush as the Sennedd can be a pain, I was really saddened when their proposed ban of fake grass was, ahem, was kicked into the long grass.

Where does this obsession with tidiness come from...? It's weird! Such people should not be allowed to move out of their town urbs, unfortunately I can see why tree protection orders are necessary.

GC

 

[Danceswithhelicopters]

Almost worth a thread on its own, travel down the Spey and the Tay by canoe and you see the beautification of the river banks for the fee paying guest anglers who used to be agile sportsmen hunting the difficult spots.

Moaning estates and fisherman complaining about the drop in salmon whilst strimming the life, literally, out if the banks they stand on.

 

[Keith_Beef]

No mention of rain, but I've seen a few winged ants crawling around. Not a proper nuptial flight preparation, yet, but winged ants are often a sign of a coming thunderstorm.