We have been experiencing a heatwave on extreme proportions. As I write this, I have the fan on in the study and it is just pushing hot air round the room. My lounge thermometer tells me it is 32C, despite closed windows, closed curtains and an electric fan. On Monday night we had a very impressive storm at about 4am in the night. I was woken by flashing lights in the bedroom which would flash every 20 seconds. On getting up, I discovered it was lightning streaking across the sky at 20-second intervals. After a good half hour, the lightning was eventually joined by claps of thunder. I was pleased to learn on the local Facebook page that I was not the only one who had never seen a storm quite like it before. This went on for over an hour until 5am. It was accompanied by torrential monsoon-like rain that caused a lot of flooding in certain parts of London.
Weeks and weeks ago, Kay and I had agreed to spend Sunday and Monday together to tackle the wilderness of her garden. She had some days off between two sets of night shifts, so was best placed to do this together with me. Her garden is an absolute wilderness. She and her husband barely get time to do anything once they get home in the late evening, let alone do any gardening and weekends are spent doing massive work inside the house or revising for exams.. The weeds, brambles, nettles, and ivy are over 6 foot hight and swamp anything else. Plus the weed Herb Robert seems to grow just about everywhere smothering whatever plants there might be, so it is a mammoth job. Unfortunately we chose the two June days that were the hottest on our part of the planet since time began. We started really early in the morning, would dive into the house for pintfuls of water and a bit of respite before tackling another area. Over the two days we managed to weed so much we found our way to the bottom of her garden, unearthed the pond and managed to sting ourselves on nettles and rip our skin on brambles into the bargain. We tore off handfuls of the 10-foot-high ivy that borders three sides of the garden. All in all we filled over 11 dustbin-sized bags to take to the waste tip. It now looks a different garden but I fear in 6 weeks, the weeds will be back and by autumn back to 6 feet again.
Last week I promised some videos of my concert and find that they have been put on youtube, so you can enjoy as much or as little as you want. There are three choirs all linked together. Our adult choir, a youth choir of singers aged 11-18 and another junior choir aged 11 and under. Because of privacy, there has to be an element of blurriness to avoid identifying the children, or even adult individuals I suppose.
There are two videos as there was an Interval between them. If you fancy a concert from the comfort of your home, based on the theme FAMILY, then enjoy...
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTX73llG53qmXRSU0LNiMha765oetdpma&si=qGLp-JCv2azRM7ns
11 comments:
Goodness! I'd not heard or read about the thunderstorm London (and you) experienced, and while I am sure the rain was very welcome for some, when it comes down in torrents and meets mostly paved-over surfaces it will unfortunately lead to flooding. Hopefully, not too much damage was done.
Your gardening weekend sounds extreme - not just on account of the heat but also on account of what you achieved nonetheless! I guess if it had been me, I would have chickened out for fear of heatstroke (not to speak of getting scratched and stung and bitten).
You and your daughter deserve medals for gardening in that brutal heat. You had a very satisfactory result, but I do hope your prediction doesn't prove correct.
I must admit I did question whether we were right to work in the garden in such heat, but the times my daughter is able to get the time to do it is so rare and we had arranged this weeks ago.
What is the saying... mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun!
There should be a TV programme "Gardening With Addy and Kay". It would be rather different from "Gardeners' World" with Monty Don. I am a little surprised that you did not spray "Round Up" on selected parts of Kay's garden to suppress unwanted weed growth. You need to keep those suckers under control or you will be back to square one.
Hats off to you both for persevering with such hard work in that heat. I was exhausted just pegging the washing out last week.
The weeds seem to thrive on weedkiller. They are a super race which no doubt will be the end of us!
We did drink pintfuls of water and sought shade where we could, but I had to dive inside revery hour or so. At aged 75, I didn't want to overdo it!
During the hottest days here I only went out for a short walk between 7-8 am... Luckily my "garden" this year only consists of two pelargonium plants on the balcony - which one of the days I chose to take in rather than leave them out in the glaring sun...
I sometimes think a few plants would be much easier to look after. But my garden is a reasonable size and my daughter's even bigger, so cannot be neglected.
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