It might as well rain until September

I’m trying to resist the temptation to say ‘September already’ but I feel I can be forgiven since September normally heralds the arrival of Autumn, and over here in the UK we are still waiting for our summer. We did have some sun at some point – back in June I think. It even lasted for a couple of weeks. But that was pretty much our lot. And if you think I’m exaggerating, then perhaps the Met. Office pronouncement that this August the UK only had 105.5 hours of sun compared to the average for August of 165 hours may go some way to convincing you. That’s the lowest since records began, which I think was in 1929.

Oddly enough 1929 is one year before the Hyde Park Lido was built in London’s Hyde Park (where else). This followed hot on the heels of the discovery that you get Vitamin D from exposure to sunlight in 1922, so helping rid the UK of rickets. And if you wonder where these little gems of information are coming from, it’s an article in the BBC online magazine. The best bit of the article for me though is reference to ‘The sun-bathing riots’ in North-west London, also in 1930. Apparently regular walkers got upset when they found sunbathers strewn around the Welsh Harp reservoir, and a riot ensued! Oh, and here’s one for Monica (and anyone else who is feeling a bit down): sunlight entering the retina produces serotonin. So get out there in that sunshine – if, that is, you are lucky to find some.

Back on the subject of the Met. Office, they tell us that we are likely to have a mild autumn with lower than average rainfall. Given the usual accuracy of their weather forecasts that means I’m digging out my thermal underwear and the galoshes. That’s what I think of their normal forecasts – well for this area at least. Every day I check out the BBC local forecast, and virtually every day it’s wrong. Take today for example: it said Heavy Showers. To be fair we had rain overnight, but for around 90% of the day so far we’ve experienced that elusive phenomenon known as ‘the sun’. I’m not sure that nature is in agreement with the Met. Office either, as the bracken is starting to die back (which seems a bit early to me), and there seems to be more fungi than normal about at this time of year. It is still fairly warm at around 18C/64F though.

As for me, well I’ve continued with my mission to clean my carpets. I’ve also finally started to try and edit my video from Kenya, although there is an awful lot of it. In between times I took Jez to see my Dad, as Pat had gone off to France to stay with her son for a week. This is Jez on a Heath near Dad’s.



Pat is now home from France, but on Sunday went up to Hull for a few days, so Dad is coming to lunch tomorrow. Oh, and last night I finally managed to order Jez some birthday presents. She will be 1 year old on 12th September (or thereabouts). Talking of Jez, she’s just come and laid her head in my lap, which is making it very difficult to type. She hasn’t done that since she was a young puppy. But we went for a longer than usual walk this morning, so she’s tired.

Our new walk is still over the Heath, but we’ve been going on a different part, up towards Broadstone where there’s a viewpoint. I took some photos a couple of days ago…





It’s good because she is off the lead all the time, although I have to keep my eye open for horse riders. I felt it wasn’t long enough, so today I combined it with part of our normal walk to create a nice route with took about 95 minutes.

Jez starts agility on Saturday. I’m not sure whether she’ll like it, but I hope so. I’m more worried about the amount of running I’ll have to do though, as she’ll be on the lead. Anyway, I’ll let you know how it goes.

Oh – I forgot earlier. I just wanted to say a Happy Birthday to B’net. It’s been interesting in the B’net thread seeing who’s been around all that time.

And talking of fungi, as I was earlier, I took some photos of a lovely bracket fungus that’s growing on a dying oak tree at the end of our drive.