The last few days have been so oppressively hot that we have been too uncomfortable to do anything but sit with ice cold drinks in our hands. At night it's been too hot to sleep and I've been dropping off in the early hours (almost just before I have to get up again) and then waking hot and sticky. The thunderstorms have been amazing, just as night fell, and at one point we were sitting, in the dark, in the garden watching and filming the storms. We had torrential rain and even hailstones at one point. Thankfully, it's a little cooler today, humid but overcast so more comfortable. I can't take the heat any more. Is it an age thing? How do you cope?
After my tussle with the earwigs in the Bramley apples I was nervous of giving any of the Russets to the family but my brave Granddaughter offered to try them :) .....
She says they are tart but delicious so more will be picked and shared around.
I cut into the remaining Bramleys cautiously and stewed them with a little sugar. We can eat them for dessert with some ice cream or custard and a further two plastic boxes of stewed apple are in the freezer for crumble later.
It seems we had coddling moth in the Bramleys which spoilt a lot of the fruit so we will be grease banding and putting a pheromone trap in the tree at the appropriate time. We really don't want to resort to spraying and are happy to share a little of the fruit with insects (but not quite so much as we have shared this year!)
Currently picking from the allotment:
Runner beans
Peas
Radishes
Lettuce
Chard
Apples
Our potato crop has failed abysmally. I think the plants were frosted early on and never really recovered. We have been digging up the occasional plant and the potatoes have been tasty but there were very few on each plant. Recently we found out that the previous plot holder had grown potatoes last year in the same bed :( No wonder they didn't do well. G has sown green manure in a different bed so that will be dug in and we'll try potatoes in there next spring. Onward and upward, as they say!
Have a great weekend and stay safe wherever in the world you happen to be x
It's still really hot here in south Hampshire, no thunderstorms for us, but we did get rain, most days we are inside with fans going just keeping out the sun and cool.
ReplyDeleteYes, Poppy, it's been far too hot to go out.
DeleteWe had some brilliant thunderstorms in Lancashire, and torrential rain for the first night ... but no hailstones thank goodness. Imagine what they would have sounded like bouncing off the roof of the Van!!
ReplyDeleteCrikey it would have been like WW2! I was nervous that they would dent the roof of my car but it survived thankfully. I love a good storm when it freshens the air :)
DeleteWe used to lay on the beach all day with the kids way back but neither of us are any use in the heat now.
ReplyDeleteI simply can't wait for the cooler weather to come in, we are both fed up with being tired and hot.
Briony
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It's miserable at times, isn't it Briony. And worse somehow when you can't go out for a change of scene! x
DeleteI am lucky , very lucky to have air condtioning(a window unit)helps me survive.
ReplyDelete