Wednesday 1st July 2015

I am writing this on Wednesday evening. I have been on holiday for some four hours now, and so far, I do not feel any different. Maybe I will feel better on Friday when we have the feline rodeo, or operation cat round up to give it its proper name. And between now and then, I have somehow been persuaded to have a meeting on my first morning off. See, I love my job.

But the worse part is over.

But before we talk about today, we go back in time, 24 whole hours to yesterday, when it was still June.

Tuesday.

And on this day, the big heat did hit.

For the most part, spring and this small part of summer have been, well, mild without being hot. So we kings got used to being able to sleep, cook in comfort, and all the other things that we complain about when the thermometer hits 80 or above. And Tuesday was such a day.

Jools left for work at seven, and I decided to have breakfast sitting on the patio, making the most of a few minutes before work. The sun was already strong enough for me to feel it on my thighs through my jeans. IN the sunlight, a small crowd of fresh poppies danced; the day's previous crowd had lost their petals through the day, but the view was refreshed overnight. The air was thick with insects, busy collecting nectar and pollen. I carried on and ate my bran flakes.



I Go inside and begin working. It is the usual mix of meetings and mails and documents and spreadsheets. I go back outside for a mid morning coffee, for lunch and again in the afternoon. It just gets hotter. I thought I saw a hummingbird hawk moth in the morning, so O keep my camera nearby just in case, I even remember to pre-set the controls just in case. And just after lunch the little fella comes flitting around, and I fire off a 100 or so shots. As you do. hey are not perfect, but with some post-processing, they are acceptable, and I have mostly frozen the wingbeats.



I am happy.

Back to work, until half three, when I have had enough, I am on the verge of another allergy attack, and so it is either more drugs or go outside for a while. I decide to go for a walk, we have a bag of carrots which we will not use before we go away, so I thought I would use them to get closer to some fine horses along the lane.



I must have been mad, walking in the late afternoon sun, to check out the butterfly glade, look at the piglets and maybe feed the horses some carrots, if they were hungry.



The broad beans in the fields on all sides are now producing fruit, as it were. And after Monty Don said how sweet the young beans were, I thought I would try some.



And indeed they were soft and sweet, I should have tried more.



At the glade, the piglets were spark out, the heat was oppressive, I was regretting the decision to go out walking, but then the weather was so glorious, it would have been madness not to go.



In the glade, there were a few Meadow Browns, a single Common Blue and a lone Brown Argus. I let them be as I could not be bothered to change lenses.

I walk down the hill, and the two chestnut horse were very interested in the carrots I pulled from my bag. They munched them all, and then followed me back up the hill.

Back across the fields to home, where, without breaking step once inside, I grab a cold beer from the fridge then go outside to sit in the shade of the hedge, quenching my thirst and bringing on a major headache, but what the heck?



When Jools comes home, we make dinner: a simple meal of breaded chicken, salad and the left over bread from the day before. It is perfect. Its too warm to sit inside, so we sit on the patio, watching the sun set and the moon rise. Its cheap entertainment.