The heat is on

Tweetypie

Tweetypie

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Nottinghamshire
Is this heat killing you? I can't seem to stay out longer than 10 minutes. The hens are hiding under their favourite shrub, which is lovely and cool. They only come out for a few minutes to eat and drink, then go back again.

I love the sunshine and will probably regret saying this, but when I start my new job on Monday, I will be glad of the air conditioning in the office :D
 
It's a very pleasent 14C here today. Many years ago I was flying up here from down south and the captain came on the Intercom and said "It's a balmy 14C in Kirkwall. Old ladies are collapsing in the street".
One of my greatest joys here is the summer temperatures. In the eight years I've lived here full time the hottest day was 19C. Break out the Pimms and make the smoked salmon sandwiches.
 
I agree, I can't manage at all well in the heat. When I was teaching at the local primary school, the classrooms had huge greenhouse-type windows with only very small ventilation windows at the top. Temperatures regularly got up to 35C+ and it was not possible for children to sit next to the windows. When they came in after a hot dinner hour in the sunshine on the field, I used to line them up and sprinkle them all with talcum powder to cool them down. I suppose that wouldn't be allowed nowadays as I'd have to touch them, shock horror. The school still has these huge sheets of glass and I do pity the children and teachers in this heat. A steady 29.9C here today, but at least I'm out of doors most of the time. I envy you, HenGen!
What is your new job going to be, Tweetiepie? Good luck next week, I hope you settle in and enjoy it.
 
29.9C! :o you could cook scrambled eggs in that.
On the question of the seasons I have still not fully adjusted to the lack of night here at this time of year. I generally watch Family Guy before bed (which finishes around midnight) and always take the dog out last thing. I can see the Skerries on the horizon, 10 miles away and the gulls are flying about overhead. Glad I invested in blackout curtains for my bedroom.
 
It's 29 degrees in Notts. 30 years ago I would have been basking in my bikini. Eek.
Its just a temporary sales admin job for 9 months. I just want a part time job really. 3 days a week but this is full time. I've not been working for 6 weeks, I packed it in as the Manager was such a moody person. Working full time is going to be a shock to the system. The husband will be elated as he has the house to himself again.

Hen gen, where do you live?
 
It's stinking hot here too! We haven't had any rain for weeks, and now mum (who lives in town) says they've introduced water conservation orders. My daughter & her family are away on holiday. As she sadly messaged me today "We paid a lot of money, and D took time off work, for a sun & beach holiday. And it's been cold and raining here, while there's a heatwave at home, and we live walking distance from the beach!" Thing is though, if they are to have a break, they have to go away somewhere, otherwise her husband doesn't get away from work at all. He runs a garden maintenance business. As it is, dau said he keeps getting lots of calls from clients!
 
The in-car thermometer said it was 28.5 at 1pm - almost too hot to have the roof down, but amazingly it's dry heat with very low humidity so I can cope. The front of my house is south facing so have blinds drawn and windows firmly shut. I open them on the north side usually but was out all morning. The house was amazingly cool when I came in so I've only just opened the french doors on the north side! My cat has stayed in all day in the cool - he is completely black so his coat gets really hot in the sun.
 
I shall cheer you all up (?!) by telling you that you are all warmer (except HG) than me! It should be well over 30 by this time in June, but it is struggling to hit 30. I can't abide the cold, so this is the right place for me, although I am returning to the UK tomorrow for a week to warm up!
 
Three water barrels all empty now. The last time it rained, it was a storm, it flooded parts ofNorthampton. Watering my mates down the street, came back with two watering cans to do my pots.
This should be in the thrift thread lol
 
Thankfully, I'm on a well which has never yet run dry (except twice in the space of a week, several years ago, when my husband, who had AD, left the garden hose running and forgot all about it!). And now, with only me here, I don't use a lot of water. So, I'm able to water the veg garden and the polytunnel. I have a large, clean oil tank sitting in the corner of the garden and in theory I should be bucketing rain water into that when the barrels get full when it rains. I have a "dirty water" pump for pumping the water back out through a hose. There's another old, clean tank lying around too, which I think I will try and rescue, and attach to a downpipe. I know this prolonged dry spell is unusual for here, but it's as well to be prepared in future, isn't it?

What I don't understand though is this. There are times of the year when there is far too much rain. Why isn't something done about harvesting and storing water for dry spells? Surely, rainwater harvesting systems would be better installed from the word go, in building housing, or even on a larger scale for towns etc.?
 
I've a large water butt which will be empty PDQ. I have been watering my garden, as not heard of a hosepipe ban yet. I think I am going to get another couple of water butts so that when it rains, at least I have sufficient water for the garden.

I was out walking in the forest last week and saw floods of water and a waterfall... one of those huge pipes that the farmer uses to water his neighbouring fields, had come away or burst. I cannot imagine how much water escaped. It was shocking! I reported to the water board immediately, but they took 8 hours to inspect it, next they'll be moaning about lack of water in the resevoirs.

I agree with you, LadyA, farmers and other businesses should be finding other ways to collect this water.
 
It's been very hot and dry down here as well, a big contrast to the floods and cold of the previous week. 32C today rising to 36C on Saturday with heavy thunderstorms forecast for Sunday.

At the moment we are watering the veggie plot from stored rainwater- we have two 1000L tubs fed by the guttering which gives us Chlorine -free water, essential for the soft fruit like Strawberries and Raspberries which (from experience) lose their flavour completely if given Chlorine. However our problem is mosquitoes hatching in the water butts so we're giving thought to adding fish but first have to remove the rotting vegetation from the bottom which depletes the oxygen.

Bit of a chore pumping into the water butt in the veggie plot though, but have discovered a use for supermarket potato mesh bags- a filter for the pump.
 
chrismahon said:
It's been very hot and dry down here as well, a big contrast to the floods and cold of the previous week. 32C today rising to 36C on Saturday with heavy thunderstorms forecast for Sunday.

At the moment we are watering the veggie plot from stored rainwater- we have two 1000L tubs fed by the guttering which gives us Chlorine -free water, essential for the soft fruit like Strawberries and Raspberries which (from experience) lose their flavour completely if given Chlorine. However our problem is mosquitoes hatching in the water butts so we're giving thought to adding fish but first have to remove the rotting vegetation from the bottom which depletes the oxygen.

Bit of a chore pumping into the water butt in the veggie plot though, but have discovered a use for supermarket potato mesh bags- a filter for the pump.
Click to expand...

When we lived in the desert of S/W United States, my husband used to pour a little oil onto the surface of the water tubs, which seemingly meant the mosquitoes couldn't lay their eggs there, or the eggs couldn't survive, or something. You don't need a lot, he said, just make sure there's a film of oil on top of the water.

hasty ps! Cooking oil, I mean, not the toxic stuff!
 
29.5 C in our run today - a bit cooler on the ground and under the shade of the roof. Chooks seem OK with it, a bit of panting going on. They have had half a cucumber as a cooling treat.
My new longbow has arrived this morning and I am dying to try it out but standing in an open field at the moment isn't too appealing.
 
I buy half a cucumber each week from our village shop. Two slices in a G and T. Paradise.
They think I’m some kind of salad eater!

A longbow? Are you practising for The Leamington Spa Theatres production of Robin Hood?
 
Hen-Gen said:
A longbow? Are you practising for The Leamington Spa Theatres production of Robin Hood?
Click to expand...
Ooh Yeah! Got the hat with a couple of chicken feathers but these green tights are killing me!
 
I was picturing you in some kind of "Sealed Knot" get-up, Rick - maybe a leather tabard & some interesting boots (we know you're good at designing those :-)
 
I don't much go in for a style of any sort really icemaiden but I suppose a leather arm guard and a Tilly hat (and toting a longbow and wooden arrows does the trick :)
The long bow is great, by the way - slower than my field bow (which broke) - much more tactile and alive though. Got a clout competition next weekend (flinging arrows up a field in a high curve to try to get close to a flag.) It will probably be raining cats and dogs by then!
 
You are the first person I have heard of with a longbow. I was imagining you re- enacting Agincourt.
Our lake is decreasing rapidly and the geese are walking rather than swimming, fish have retreated to the middle part, and herons are having a field day hoovering up anything near the edge.
Our neighbour has started to feed the winter hay to the livestock already
 
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