today

although its reached 26c this afternoon!

So i guess you've all seen the news - so called wildfires in various parts of England with homes and other property destroyed as temperatures in the east of England topping 40c, the new official record of 40.3c being recorded at the home of the Battle of Britain Flight, Coningsby in Lincolnshire. It got to @ 37c here in Brizzle, whilst that tempered peoples activity, it was night time temps of close on 30c that were more problematic. We do get apparently spontaneous fires in the UK but most have a human cause ignitor, discarded ciggys, broken glass, discarded tins/cans and its almost certain that poor land management has 'helped' the flames this week. No succor to those who have lost everything but maybe, just maybe, there will be some review of the land husbandry that contributed.

Keeping out of the heat has been a national pastime the last few days and here in Castle Taff it was no different. However i did have to go to the bike shop on Monday to collect my still unfixed wheel but i got around before the temps peaked and made some allowances, a bush hat and instead of cami and mini skirt i covered up with a t and walking shorts! It was still damn hot but i spent some time writing when i got back, half a chapter, i'll finish that on Friday.

Tuesday would normally be a good 100km+ ride but the mid thirties with high humidity do not make for ideal cycling conditions so i took a shorter ride designed to include plenty of shade. Only about 55km then, with a tea stop but it was enough given the conditions. As i was back so early, just after lunch, i finally got around to re-dying my hair, i had intended doing it a month ago, so i'm a temporary red head again!

And so to today, a bit cooler, if mid 20's can be described thus but with a lot of cloud cover so it felt a lot more comfortable. I decided on Sweden for lunch then had to go out again when i got back for stuff i forgot to get! I told you the red is only a disguise, i'm still blonde underneath! We've been eating a lot of salad the last week or so and tonight we reached new heights with home grown, potatoes, spring onions, the first cucumber and some tiny, very sweet strawberries and blueberries from the fruit garden. To top it off we had blackberries that i picked earlier in the back lane with ice cream for dessert, the best i can ever remember having!

By the weekend we'll be adding home grown lettuce to the mix, i've got Habenero's coming along and maybe another half dozen cucumbers. Onions, runner and broad beans, beetroot, parsnips and carrots are all coming along nicely and the rhubarb continues to produce - oh and we might get more strawberries yet. All in all a quite productive year in the garden.

Tomorrow i'll be back out on two wheels and I'll be back again Sunday with more Gaby, but for today,
Tak,
Madeline Anafrid