Irish saying ( this one was in Kerry).... If you can see the mountains, it is going to rain. If you cannot see them ,it is raining...."

And." In Ireland if there is no rain for two days, they declare a drought.."

Yet there were days when we had to water using a hose pipe..Nostalgia!

A beautiful sunny day today some outdoor grapes are ripe, the others almost
ripe. Hoping this warmth continues.

Looks like a fine day about to dawn - the first of many?

Still reminded of the saying Nid yn y bore y mae canmol diwnod teg - The morning is not the time to praise a fair day.

More Welsh pessimism

What an amazing day again, finished off with a beautiful sunset. It's been warmer here the last two days than the whole of August, I think.

But don't the trees look sad? So many trees, particularly sycamores and horse chestnuts, around here are just drying up, not with autumn colouring, but just shrivelling and dropping their leaves. I remember the late Professor Alan Gemmell on 'Gardeners' Questiontime" once saying if trees did not get enough rain during the first three months of the year, they will not recover again during the summer. and, considering that this year's early spring was so exceedingly dry, this seems to be born out.

24 degrees today in Gods County...even at 9.30 this evening there was a lovely warm breeze ..happy days ahead eh !!

Great day here too. Anybody else got lots of butterflies? We have dozens of them on Verbena and Sedum in particular but also Michaelmas Daisies and Bowles Wallflowers. Probably half of them are very large Red Admirals followed by Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Commas.

Lots of Red Admirals here too, Geoff, they seem to love the semi rotton, ornamental crab apples that have fallen.

This weather has gone quite mad!

Same here, Geoff and OH: lots of small tortoiseshell, a few peacock and a few red admiral and, possibly, a painted lady. It just flew past but looked suspiciously like a painted lady. Also had a silver-y moth on red valerian. Surprisingly few wasps, though!

..and the weather brought out the BBC too .... the butterflies here were firmly with me. ....but I did get to meet Anne Marie Tasker.

and I got a very brief speaking part on tonights Look North whilst clutching a basket of second fruiting of SallyBright Strawberries.


Clive.

Yes OH they are on fallen crab apples as well. Went past a clump of Bowles Mauve this afternoon and amongst the Red Admirals and Tortoiseshells were one each Peacock, Comma and Painted Lady - not bad for one patch. Had very few Painted Ladies this year compared to last.

An absolutely gorgeous day here, should last for the weekend.....

My weekend off ...

More butterflies today: small tortoiseshell, red admiral and peacock and also speckled wood (not seen one here since last year) and the first (and only?) painted lady, seemingly freshly emerged. We also found a great looking sexton beetle which I had not seen before.

Beautiful day here again

Quite a few Red Admiral butterflies in the garden, but not much else.
On the allotment, the cabbage white's are still trying to get through the debris netting. Not quite so many of them around now though thankfully

Not quite so warm at work today....but we have a visitor..

First seen in the Orchard on the Quarrendon...but photographed up in a Beech tree. Later seen flying around the gardens...mobbed by Crows/Jackdaws?

Clive.

Cropped photo...