Inbetween medical appointments, family birthdays, car service and mot, gas boiler service etc., we managed to get away to Herefordshire the week before last for four nights.
We arrived on the Tuesday afternoon. First task was to water the pots and garden! The plants had suffered yet again from the dry hot weather. I've now lost the oldest lavender plant I had there but the rose in a pot, geranium, new lavender, houseleeks, herbs, tomato and chilli plants had managed to survive. Most of the plants in the garden and border are still more or less ok. If we continue to have hot dry summers I may have to have a re-think as to whether it is worth bothering having pots.
Cattle sheltering from the sun under the Herefordshire Oak
The Octopus Tree in the centre of the photo.
The Constable Tree(s)
As you can see there has not been much change in the Herefordshire Trees since the last visit.
Teasel in the garden
D's chilli plant has two flowers :)
On the Wednesday we went into Leominster to do a food shop at Morrisons.
Thursday and Friday we just stayed at the caravan and yet again I spent a lot of time reading. If I am honest it really was too hot to go out visiting places and walking although I was tempted by the thought of a church visit as they are usually so cool inside.
On the Friday I went outside and counted butterflies for Butterfly Conservation's Big Butterfly Count.
I just counted the maximum number of butterflies seen at any one time in the 15 minutes of the count.
Meadow Brown x 1
Small White x 4
Gatekeeper x 4
Large White x 2
Holly Blue x 1
Sorry no photos - the butterflies were far too active! No sign of the Red Admirals, Peacocks or Speckled Woods we had seen on other days!
Timothy was not enjoying the heat any more than me.
Early on the Friday morning before I had woken up B saw three Green Woodpeckers on the grass in front of the caravan. One of them was a juvenile being fed by the adults. Later in the day we saw a Linnet feeding on seeds in the grass. I was really pleased with this sighting as I haven't seen a Linnet for years and it was a new species for the caravan site.
Linnet
I used the bat detector most nights and it is good to know the bats are still around the caravan. They weren't appearing until about 10.30 pm so it wasn't easy to see them unless they were flying against the sky.
We left early Saturday afternoon. Hopefully, it won't be too long before we return and I hope it will be a bit cooler next time! Static caravans cool down quickly at night but they heat up in the sun very quickly in the daytime :( I am very pleased we thought to buy a tower fan last year!
All photos taken by me with the Panasonic Lumix FZ330 bridge camera. (I don't particularly rate my photos but if anyone wishes to use one of mine or my son's I would be grateful for an email first - thanks).
