We had a fine dry warm day to start of the month and for the odd showers that we did have the river level continued to slowly drop back a bit more towards summer level.
This month saw more of our usual grass cutting continuing but the growth rate has definitely slowed up a bit with the ground being so dry. The rest of our big hedges got what is hopefully their final cut of the year,
and there were a few extra odd jobs thrown into the mix with some repairs required to the wooden café shutters which had shrunk and warped a bit in all this heatwave we have endured of late.
On the evening of the 14th we had one of the longest most intense thunder and lightning storms that I can ever remember, the noise and intense rain seemed to last forever!
But it was welcomed as all the fields and ground were bone dry and they certainly took a good soaking, the river level spiked a bit but was very soon dropping back again as the decent weather returned.
As the month progressed it was time for an annual pick of sloes for making the sloe gin and getting a few crates of apples put into the cold dark storage for using later on into the winter as part of our bird feeding programme.
The bees have also been very busy on the Himalayan balsam over the last week or so and a super has been added to the hive for them to work away at filling.
As is this time of year there are always various fungi appearing at random locations but always good to see.
We are still seeing the odd boats and canoes out enjoying the river, and the café and the activity centre continue to keep busy which are good. We had a nice warm day to end the month and the river level was sitting a few inches above summer level.
Dago