June began in benign mode, with a gloriously sunny day on the second, which saw temperatures nearly reaching 20 degrees C. But not quite!

For all sorts of reasons, not least of which has been the very warm, and wet start to the year (even if it’s been gloomy), both our upper and lower hay meadows looked as glorious as they ever have, on June 2nd, with almost hip high sweet vernal grass flower stems, more orchid blooms appearing than ever before, and seas of meadow buttercups.

We realised too that almost all our Asters seem to have died out on the terrace garden this spring. Again this might be the persistent gloomy and grey weather, or possibly from slug predation, which certainly savaged the daffodil blooms this year in a way we’ve never noticed before.

Early June saw the first roses begin to open, and the Clematis montana beginning to fade, as much of the garden moved into its quieter June period.

A glimpse of a dryish weather window saw me cutting the first small areas of meadow for hay. Choosing those sections with minimal flowers, this was on the afternoon of June 5th. No rain was forecast, temperatures were barely 12 degrees C. Rain fell overnight, followed by heavy dews, grey skies and more drizzle. The saving grace was moderate Northerly winds. But after many manual turnings, and with heavier rain forecast on the 4th day (which didn’t arrive!) we opted to bring it all into the hay barns, and Fiona did sterling work turning it inside for 3 or 4 days to dry it sufficiently to be able to stack it.

After the drama of the swarms in May, the 6 colonies seem to have got back up to speed, and I was fortunate to spot a recently emerged swarm from the PV hive, just after lunch on June 12th. With no vacant ‘hives’ I called up a friend who arrived with her husband around 8.30 pm, and we managed to scrape and shake the bees off the fence post and netting into a nucleus box she’d brought, and they were on their way home within an hour.

A real thrill has been watching Fiona finish off her series of pastel pictures, worked up from photos I’ve taken through the years. They now hang on the kitchen wall, one for every month of the year. They are absolutely brilliant, and remind us on grey or gloomy days, that the weather will change, sooner or later, and what we have to look forward to.

By the middle of the month we were at last seeing a little more sunshine and day time temperatures were improving – to nearer mid-teens! Heck, they should be – we’re nearly at the longest day.

And in the meadows whilst the meadow buttercups were still flowering, whenever the sun appeared, there were hosts of Cat’s Ear flowers, particularly dense in the lower meadow, where this year, we’ve counted over 25 orchids – up from about 7 last year.

On the 17th, with another window of opportunity opening, albeit without warm temperatures, we cut some more hay in the lower meadows where a lack of hemi-parasitic flowers was allowing coarser grasses to produce ever lusher growth.

The following day, it was so cool with a brisk Northerly wind and grey skies all day (not what was forecast), so we needed to wear pullovers whilst we did the critical first, and physically hardest, shaking out by hand.