We had a dry warm spell of weather at the start of July and the river level continued to slowly drop away as the system was drying up high above Perth. The heat was to intensify and peaked around the 19th as record breaking temperatures were recorded at various locations up and down the country; the mercury hitting over 40⁰C in a few places and there were problems with grass and forest fires breaking out around the UK.
Our maintenance and cutting programme continued into the month, but we had a change of scenery for a couple of days as we were drafted into help with the strimming up at our Cargill rod beat.
It was just a case of taking back the banking’s a bit and clearing some of the pathways for access for the rod fishers. It is good to see they are still catching a few fish and there were plenty showing when we were up there.
The butterflies and bees have been very active during this good spell of weather
and there are plenty of wild flowers out along the riverbanks just now for them all to enjoy,
the purple loosestrife is everywhere and the buddleias are out in flower earlier this year too.
It is looking like it will be another good year for getting a pick of sloes. It was time for some of the big hedges to get another cut and tidy up
and the ponds were needing a good top up of water to keep them at a decent level for all the activities that were taking place during what was quite a busy spell.
There was a little rain into the last week of the month that nudged the river level up a bit, but it was soon receding back again as the dry calm weather dulled down on the end of July.
Dago