It finally broke

After so much drought and heat, the sky changed and turned a soft grey. 

I woke to a light mist and less heat but the humidity was still high.

Then it came, that glorious pitter patter sound, although the ground was so hot, nothing seemed to wet it just evaporated as quickly as it fell. 

But it kept going and although it won't have penetrated very far, perhaps a few centimetres at most into this parched ground, at least the birds have had a shower, can find water more easily and perhaps recovered from the intense heat they've endured recently. 

I got back from the hospital; the garden still doesn't have that wet earth smell but the trays under the pots are full; I won't be watering today.

Is this days of future to come?

The sky is cloudy but the thermometer hits 33°C. We've already hit 40°C this year which has been unheard of until now. 

Roads surfaces are soft and corners are starting to rut; by next month there will be many surfaces in need of replacement.

Pipes burst open as the ground around them shrinks through dehydration of the soils. Gas escapes, explosions happen; water escapes and thousands of litres of precious drinking water goes down the roadside and into the drains.

Low rainfall has placed our area at risk with reservoir levels really low even before we reach high summer. 

Is this the start of times to come? Where will our temperatures be in 10 years time? In 20 years?

A friend of mine gave birth to her second child some 6 months ago. Her daughter will reach 18 in 2040, where will she be? Will the South East be viable? When its 2047 she will be 25 years old and wanting to have children herself. Will she? 

This sounds doom and gloom but I'm not meaning this in those terms, I'm just ruminating.

Now we have food shortages beginning to bite as wild fires hit farmland and decimate already dwindling harvests. 

Root crops wither in the ground, will we get a potato harvest this year? 

If the rains fail us this winter, will we be able to plant viable seeds and them flourish?

There's a squeeze on energy prices and as they spiral almost beyond most people's reach, cookers, heating and lights go off on many houses. What will happen when the winter comes? Fuel poverty coupled with food restrictions will lead to a life more resembling the 50s and 60s of the last century rather than 2022/3.

Chances are I will live to 2035, motor cars as we know will be fazing out, central heating will be/have been changing its complexion........how much else will change?

Will I still be living here? 

In this house?

Where/what will you be doing in 2035? 

Spotted in Maidstone today

Yep, Christmas comes early here. 😏

My first ever!!

Courtesy of Butterfly Conservation 

Standing in the kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil for that all important first cup of the day, I noticed an insect buzzing round my buddleia which didn't move in the same manner as a bee, wasp or butterfly. 

Reaching for the binoculars (who doesn't have a pair on the kitchen window sill?) and focusing down I realised; a hummingbird hawk moth.

Excited by what I saw, the tea continued to brew unabated as I watched this large insect drift on beating wings from one flower to the next. I felt special, elated, vindicated, my experiment was beginning to show results. The garden, which would be deemed far from conventional was beginning to balance.

I returned to my tea, satisfied and grinning. Yep, the autumn will bring further naturalisation and hopefully more life next year.

Boats and butterflies

Coming out of The Range I looked toward the river. Two and three deep, house boats, river boats, pleasure boats and a couple of beautiful barges occupied the far bank.

As I turned the bend in the river a paddle board glided by; peacock and red admirals rose from the wild buddleia in a cloud of flapping wings, only to alight once more on another flower spike.

Now that is what a county town should feel like.