The first few days of July were dry, dull mild and stormy at times before a high pressure moved in and settled things down a bit. Then we were into a dry settled spell of hot weather, a heatwave that would continue up until the last week of the month.
It has been a long time since we have had a sustained warm spell like this, the grass growth rate soon slowed up and it was soon turning yellow in places as it dried out. Out in the fields it was a case of making hay while the sun shone,
with farmers and contractors making the most of it, sadly things were not so good in other areas as wild fires started to spread in various locations up and down the country. The grass cutting may have slowed down a bit but we were kept busy with hedge cutting and strimming this month. The big hedge up at the Activity Centre got its first cut of the season,
always glad to see that one done!
We had an away day with the strimmers helping out at our Cargill rod beat, giving the boys a hand getting some of the river banking in check.
The river level continued to slowly drop back to summer level during this time as the catchment area steadily dried up.
The succession of various colours along the river banks continued to appear as more seasonal wild flowers came into flower,
with various Bell flowers, Musk Mallow, and Heartleaf Oxeye showing up at various locations, along with the usual more dominant ones such as the Purple Loosestrife and Rebecca.
We are seeing more ducklings getting up in size now out on the river and it was good to see the Waterhens and their young doing well on the ponds up at the Activity Centre too.
This warm spell of weather has been very good for the butterflies whose numbers seem to be well up this year.
The last week of the month brought some much needed rain to most areas and the temperatures did drop a bit too, but for all the heavy showers the river level only rose a few inches and remained at less than a foot above summer level as July came to an end.
Dago
