The Bluestocking Women's Pub, in which Gosie returns to the trail

[Magpiecomplex]

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Last week I saw a friend who is married to a farmer. She said, 'You know, exactly two years ago, we were just starting harvest. Now he's done everything, apart from the spring barley which was...'
'Disastrous?'
'Disastrous. The grains are tiny and the straw is short. So he's carting muck today, not combining.'

It pissed down for about a week in early June, too late for most of the arable crops, and then has been bone dry with a very few spells of rain - we had a downpour the other week and everyone got terribly excited and then after 10-20 minutes it stopped.

Mind you, the onions (which have been irrigated a lot) are looking reasonably good. I gave the car a country car wash the other day. I was driving along as an irrigation jet was sploshing out over the lane, so I slowed right down to make sure that we were under the next pulse. It got the windscreen cleaner than it's been for weeks.

I think it was either Covent Garden or Oxford where I was living. I used the mail order catalogue back then and loved Pepperberry clothes, but it was not economically viable to continue in clothing.

Looooong meeting and I think I am going to have to step down after less than a year. A steam train is coming doesn’t the track and I can’t stop it and I don’t want to jump on board. I am far too tired to care any more. The only thing left to decide is the timing and mechanism of my departure.

Ice cold tonic and angoustora bitters, bargerbil, with a slice of lemon.

Jump quickly, Myrtle? Sorry that you’ve put so much effort into it for it to stop now, though.

It visited me outside my bedroom this evening! It looked quite different in flight and then at rest with its wings closed.
I stepped away for a moment to get my phone to take its picture, but in those few seconds it had moved on.

Thinking back to stained glass, is this an example or is it not? Clearish glass but in colour on the table.
I’ve pinched the photo from a friend’s Facebook. It wasn’t taken at Trinity but at St John’s, next door.

Also, Ely stained glass museum and a couple of photos of Ely cathedral which came on my FB feed this evening.

edit: click on the photos to see them properly.

Ely photos by Veronica in the Fens

Those are beautiful Edith.

Woken up by a thunderstorm and a downpour earlier. Hurray!

I'm at the optician this morning and will need to catch the bus as I have no car this week. I'll probably get wet, but I don't care! 😁

I haven’t heard thunder but we’ve had some rain and chances are we’ll have a bit more today.

No sign of rain in London though it does sound as if it’s going to cool down.

We had about two drops of rain. I put a load of optimistic buckets out last night and they have nothing in them. Fingers crossed a rogue shower comes this way today.

Cloudy but no sign of rain in Kent either. Following on from Edith's comment about the harvests, all the arable is done here too. Couple of fields of sunflowers coming into flower locally and I haven't seen the beans since we went away but they were looking about ready for harvest too. We're mostly fruit around here, so that's not as affected because it gets irrigated, but it'll be expensive.

Hoping today is the last day of the heatwave. Due to be over 30 again here but I live in hope of the weather forecast being wrong. I'm definitely more of a cold weather person.

I am so over summer already.

Good omen corner! I'm back to work today after some time off, and on my stroll I've just spotted an actual shiny blue tractor 😍going about its business in the park (ahem or should I say another blue tractor)! This has surely got to be a sign of a fine day to come for all tractors and friends everywhere!

Have a lovely day all!

Yep! I always think August will be better because it tends to already start to cool compared to July. Not this year.

That's funny, I think August is the hit one.

We had a smattering of rain overnight, but not enough.

Maybe it depends where in the UK.

I always think of August as unbearable. Excellent tractor spotting, Tractor! I always smile when I spot magpies on my way to work.

This made me wonder now! Google says August is marginally cooler on average than July but there's not much in it. The second half of august is cooler than the first half of July.

And August brings the wasps.

@PastaAllaNorma that is a beautiful opal ring! Very elegant 😊

Not me! Someone else and posted by Glad.

Bore da, Bluestockingers! Woke up this morning to cloudy skies, much cooler so far, but the sun has just broken through. The forecast for overnight mentioned rain, so I closed the skylights in the attic for the first time in 6 weeks. Uncomfortable, stuffy night for sleeping, therefore. And did we get rain? We did not. It was so humid yesterday that I was sure the weather would break.

I dread to think what my water bill is going to be like at the end of the summer, and that's just for keeping the potted plants alive. I use all the waste water I can and I don't even water every day, but I think there must be quite a lot of stress on the plants, not having a regular supply.

It reminds me also of why I think I am definitely going to have to get a smaller garden, if I can ever find a house. I'm not even enjoying the garden anymore (except for the lavender, rambling roses, and the occasional rare insect visits, because all of that requires no work). I never sit in my garden and enjoy, because there's always something to be done. It's not even gardening. It's what my mother used to call "yard work." I suddenly realized yesterday morning that, as soon as the birds stop nesting, which happened very early this year, I spend the rest of the time before winter just dealing with the hedges, clearing out, chopping, staking before the storms, cleaning, and putting things away. Makes me tired just writing all that!

I think I might go see the house with the small north-facing garden again, if they'll have me.

Oh! for a downpour! Lucky you, Damson!