We are in the grip of a very hot spell and dont we know it! We never stop being reminded by every media source of dangers to life and how to cope with heat but still few seem to really quantify the blatantly obvious fact that this is not normal and we are still not really addressing climate change. As Europe burns yet again and rivers here run dangerously low, there is still so much more we can do.
In the meantime we cope as best we can. The girls get walked very early when it is pleasant but even by 8am today it was already very very warm. Then we lurk until well into the evening before setting out again. Luckily the stream is still running enough to provide a good place to splash about and cool down. Training is on hold now until Wednesday when it should cool down considerably. Farmers are roaring ahead with the harvest and I think most winter barley is safely gathered in.
The garden just dries up - save for the veg areas which are watered every single day and quite generously too. The border looks ok and I am watering the dahlias but when you see plants such as Monardas wilting you know things are bad!
But going back a week, Bertha and I had a most successful outing to Hanworth Park last weekend for a Novice Working Test. In a field of 28 dogs, all older than her, we managed to finish the morning in 6th place which is a significant achievement and one that really spurs me on to greater things with her. She did so well and was not phased by anything. We made the cut at lunch time quite comfortably and then took part in a “walk up” in the afternoon based on a field trial. When our turn came to get a “marked” retrieve, she set off on a perfect line through very very long thick hot grass (perfect for hay) and must have just run a foot to the right of it. I was a bit slow blowing my whistle to stop her in the right place as I have got so used to her marking brilliantly and was sure she would suddenly wind it and flick round. But the heat made for no scent so she got too far wrong to be called back in to hunt the area. Therefore we went out but were in good company as several others failed their first retrieve as well. The winner was a very experienced 6 year old - Bertha is not quite 2 so we have reason to be chuffed.
Monday took me to Dorset to see Laura in her lovely rented cottage in the idyllic Dorset village of Nettlecombe. The area is simply stunning and we enjoyed two visits to the beach - Eype being my favourite which was gorgeous and I even swam! Highlight of the trip was Mapperton - the house used in the latest Far From the Madding Crowd and what a treat it is - the most beautiful house and the gardens are staggeringly beautiful all set in a sleepy combe which seems to transport one back in time. Dorset has had much more rain than East Anglia so when I returned on Thursday it was quite shocking to see how even drier we had got in just four days.
We lie low now until this passes - the Tuesday Night Training Trophy competition has already been postponed until early August so the next target for Bertha is the Sandringham Flower Show.
All I can do is keep watering although I did a massive tidy up of the veg patch yesterday pulling up bolted lettuce and cutting back all the spent Verbascum chaixii in the gravel areas. Shallots are gathered and drying - best crop I have ever had. French beans excellent, courgettes etc needing so much water but the squashes despite being the same family seem to do better in the drought - I assume the courgette roots are perhaps a little shallower. Tomatoes are in full swing - wonderful and so sweet with all this sunshine.
Wildlife is quiet, a lot of roe about in the evenings, the egret back near the stream, still some quite young blackbirds being fed on the table. Swifts screaming overhead and shooting under the tiles - how they dont knock themselves out is beyond me. Swallows are around but do not appear to be trying another brood. Female sparrowhawk zoomed over the birdtable yesterday and the hobby falcon is in evidence. But this is the first summer in 33 years we have not heard a Turtle dove on the common.
