23rd Juy 2018 Sweaty!

*

Monday 23rd 64-83F, cloudy with a light breeze. Expected to conform to the usual sunshine, drought and 80F later. Remaining mostly overcast for my walk. We could hear a harvester whistling all day yesterday but there was no fresh signs of activity in the area.

Japanese knotweed suffering in the drought?

Two large herons went over flying close together. No obvious target for their bee-line flight as they ignored the local ponds and lakes. To disappear over the hilly horizon to the north. No ride today. Every swallow in the county turned up to see off a small bird of prey. I have never seen so many swallows in one place.

Tuesday 24th 68-84F, almost calm with early mist and cloud clearing. A repeat of yesterday, later and possibly even hotter still.  50 dead and rising in Greek wildfires. The Japanese are dropping like flies in record heat. Sweden is battling forest fires. Aren't we lucky it's not climate change, but only abit of weather? The temperature was rising rapidly on a walk to the lanes. New fields have been harvested. It has already reached 83F @ 1.30pm.

Late afternoon ride had been put off in the forlorn hope that it would cool off later. It didn't. Still 84F @ 6pm. 7 mile shopping ride. It was warm! Very, very warm!

An Elder bush dying from thirst in a hedgerow.

Wednesday 25th 72-88F, bright and sunny again. I slogged around the harvested fields under a hot sun. It has already reached 80F @ 9.30am. 88F by 14.00pm. It stayed at 31C, 88F for most of the afternoon. Only dropping to 86F by the time I left to do some shopping at 6pm.

I overtook a lady on her racing bike kitted out in racing gear. She looked fairly cycle fit and tanned but a little tired. I was managing 19-20mph as she tried to chase without success. Only 7 miles. Slower coming home into a light headwind. The treads of my tyres were noticeably black.

The shops were almost empty of customers. As befits a country expecting the evening meal at dead on 6pm every evening.  They even have a rule about it: Jante's Law. Anybody caught away from the table at 6pm is considered a troublemaker.

Thursday 26th 72-87F, bright and sunny again. I worked on my garden project instead of going for a walk. It has already reached 81F @ 10am. 87F @ 15.00. No ride today.

Friday 27th  72-87F, bright again with a light breeze. I walked in unpleasantly warm conditions to the lanes. The gentle breeze was neutralized by my walking pace but helped to cool me on the way back into the blinding sun. 79F @ 9.15am. There were brown leaves on another Japanese knotweed outbreak. 87F @ 13.00. Still 80F at 19.30. The wind has gone around to the SE so we are getting the black smoke from the Wooden Tops illegally burning demolition waste. Even during a heatwave this multi-car family burns scrap wood, painted chipboard and plywood for hours on end every day to heat their water cheaply.

Saturday 28th 72-86F, very windy and bright. This evening's promised rain is still on. With the threat of cloudbursts and thunderstorms.

A large field had been harvested but the harvester was absent. Perhaps they take it back to the farm overnight for security? I pottered about on the field looking for interesting pictures and a shortcut home. Stepping over the broad rows of hay was more than adequate exercise for one walk. 86F @ 13.30. 

Having tidied the garden we are waiting for the rain to arrive.  The DMI is showing it is slowly coming with lots of lightning strikes. The sky has gone dark grey with fierce gusts at 18.34 but still no rain. And then  minute later it came across the fields like very thick mist and absolutely tipped down. It has gone very dark indoors now. It took about ten minutes for the almost continuous thunder to arrive. 18.45 and still torrential rain falling. It gradually gave up but examination of buckets left out showed about 3/4 inch of rainfall. The mouth of a bucket is oversized compared with the base so exaggerates the total rainfall. Refraction makes the water look more shallow.

Sunday 29th 62F, bright and sunny with lots of thin, high cloud. I walked the stubble fields after passing a roof full of swallows and sparrows. Three deer were sitting beside the marsh but soon vanished into the undergrowth.

The mallard ducks were streaming away from the near shore on the marsh pond. While a very large heron preened itself and kept a watchful eye on me as I looked down from the field above. It felt far warmer in the hot sunshine than the thermometer reading might suggest. The poplars bursting out along the cleared verge are obviously intent on taking over the world. No ride today.

Click on any image for an enlargement.

*