Still tolerable

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew. In the course of his walk on a very hot day, he found a shady bench in a wood for a moment of respite.

The sun was out when we got up . . .

. . . and it stayed out all day. At the peak of the day it was over 40°C in the sun in the garden, but it was a lot cooler than that when I went out after breakfast to trim the hedge we share with our neighbour Betty. She had shamed me into action by trimming her side of the hedge, even though she is both older than me and recovering from a recent knee replacement.

The battery powered hedge trimmer made short work of the task, and left me time for a walk about before coffee.

I had my new camera in hand and pointed it a hosta . . .

. . . and the best survivor among our lupins.

I walked over towards the front lawn . . .

. . . which is looking very green considering how little rain we have had and the fact that it hasn’t been watered or fertilised at all this year. The cool weather over the past two months must have helped a lot.

I stood on the lawn and looked at one of the front beds. A ‘riot of colour’ is a fair description I think.

. . . and the violas round the chimney pot are pretty colourful too.

We went over to our neighbour Liz’s house for coffee. Both she and her partner Ken had already been for their cycle rides, sensibly getting them in before the day hotted up. Margaret joined us with a glass of cooling lemonade in her hand.

After coffee, I had another wander about the garden looking for something a bit more subdued like this pink . . .

. . . and nasturtiums and vincas beside the drive.

I looked at the privet flowers at the end of the garden . . .

. . . and was a bit depressed not to hear any bees at all buzzing among them. They should be alive with bees.

The stems of the eryngium made an impressive looking barrier . . .

. . . but I solved the problem by walking round them on my way into the house.

We kept the shutters in the front room shut today to help keep the house cool, so I only had one peek at the birds today. I found a siskin looking as though it thought that it was too hot.

After lunch, I went out into the garden to see if I could find a butterfly. There was a lone white butterfly fluttering about but it wouldn’t settle, so I had to settle for some more static targets with my butterfly camera.

I did catch one flying bird but it was a whirlybird flying high over the garden . . .

. . . and making a terrific racket.

According to our local weather station, the temperature in the afternoon crept up to just under 30°°C (85°°F) at its peak, but our garden thermometer showed a little less than . It didn’t seem uncomfortable, so it can’t have been very humid. There was a brisk wind blowing again, and this gave me feeling that a ride on my electric bike might be quite pleasant, if I took care not to pedal too hard.

I filled my drinking bottle with water and set off with the intention of turning back as soon as I felt that I had been ill advised to venture out. In the event, the brisk breeze and a steady pace on the bike kept me very comfortable, and I went round my familiar Canonbie route (in the reverse direction) without any discomfort at all.

I took care not to stop too often though, as of course there is no bike created breeze when you stop, and you soon warm up a lot. However, I passed a little flock of orchids in shady spot and a Scots pine in another one . . .

. . . and I tried my new camera out on a favourite view just before I got to Wauchope Schoolhouse.

The clouds in that picture seemed very odd to me when I looked at them on my computer, but I worked out that they are not really clouds at all, but the vestiges of aeroplanes’ vapour trails.

I was wearing shorts and a thin top and I got home with the kindly wind having evaporated every drop of my sweat on the way. This of course kept me remarkably cool as well as dry. A cool shower when I got in dealt with the few spots that the breeze couldn’t reach.

I checked my weight out of interest when I was having my shower, and in spite of cycling 100 miles in the last three days in quite hot weather, I had actually put on a pound in weight. It proves the truth of the belief that it is not exercise that loses weight, it is eating less. A steady diet of raspberries and cream has easily outweighed the calories used while pedalling.

My ride today took me over 300 miles for the month, and I noted that I have done exactly half on my road bike and half on my electric bike. A good division of labour.

Our house, which has its back to the sun for most of the day, has kept pretty cool at 21°°C. Mrs Tootlepedal helped by putting up a temporary blind over our back door as the sun came round in the late afternoon. The tea towel was a gift some years ago from our friends Mike and Alison who had been visiting their son In New Zealand.

We battled with technological problems on the regular sibling Zoom in the evening, but we got organised in the end. My sisters in London are having some very hot weather to put up with, but they are being very sensible and have managed well.

I had a last walk round the garden after the Zoom and enjoyed the wispy grass on the no mow lawn.

Our neighbour Liz reported that her daughter had seen two hedgehogs in her garden recently, so Mrs Tootlepedal has put our trail camera out to see if there is any sign of them in our garden tonight. We live in hope, but I am not optimistic.

No flying bird of the day today because of the closed shutters, but a flying bee steps in instead.