The good dry spell of weather continued well into July month, and the river finally dropped back to summer level. 
This weather gave us a chance to do some much needed repair work to our old boats before their annual paint.
So with lead patching to do, a seat to replace, and a few other joinery jobs required it was good to get a helping hand from retired Jim Davidson, who worked for the Tay Salmon Fisheries Co. as a boat builder in his younger days!
Another job on one of the hot days was checking over our bees,our hive had swarmed but with a new young queen and brood it should still be okay.
With the growth rate along the river banks taking off, a lot of time is being spent on our cutting programme.
As always the hogweed and Japanese knotweed demand a lot of attention, and in some difficult areas of banking the old fashioned hedge-bill still proves itself a very use-full tool where strimming is not so easy.
There were some good sightings on the river this month with the osprey doing a bit of fishing, and the flycatcher putting in an appearance. It was good to see the young swallows and sand-martins getting out into the skies, and the blackcap, garden warbler and linnet gave us a nice change from some of our more common birds.
As some of the wild flowers were dying back along the river banks, there were more new ones coming through.
The blue of the Monkshood gave a good splash of colour to some areas, and the pink of the Ragged Robin was also very strong in places.
A duller wet spell towards the end of the month saw the river level edge back up again, and after such a dry spell this was what the ground was needing and everything was soon lush green again.
