July 2024 began with a few days of grey cool weather, with 2 mm of (not forecast) rain falling on each of the first 3 days, meaning a batch of cut hay had to be scrapped for the first time in over 10 years of making it.

However, our rambling, and other roses seemed to relish these conditions.

And hardy Geraniums also looked wonderful.

After a couple of years of trying to make the bank of peril more floriferous, and removing self-sown Alchemilla, this year has seen real progress in the results, with Hydrangeas in particular relishing the lower temperatures and high regular moisture levels.

The meadows too were incredibly lush, full of flowers, and leaving us wondering how on earth we’ll get even a fraction of them cut for hay this year.

The whole month has been taken up with nibbling away at them. Mainly cutting small sections, often having to turn it manually several times a day, and finish it off by turning it loose inside our hay sheds. Or worse, having to bring it back outside again after a couple of wet days, to give it a final airing on a tarpaulin. All this wears one down physically after many such sessions, even if the eventual hay crop looks of high quality.

We did at least enjoy one haymaking session when for warm, sunny and windy weather for 2 days, after having to cut the hay as soon as the rain stopped falling.

In spite of this, and in between quite frequent still, cool and grey days, we had occasions when the cloudscapes were wonderful.

As I worked the hay on my own, around midday on July 18th, I heard, turned and watched the tail end of a swarm flying North – possibly having left the hay shed hive, which would mean this hive has swarmed twice this year. All 6 colonies still seem to be working vigorously with most having significant drone numbers, as we head towards the end of the month.

It’s been exciting to see the size and number of salmonids in the several small pools which we have on our stream this year – larger than I can recall before, and they seem to be benefitting from the extra shelter we’ve provided by adding some brash branches in the water to help protect from potential predation from a pair of herons which are visiting the stream again regularly.

However, we’re quite alarmed by the apparent lack of many insects this summer. Bumblebee numbers seem very low, as well as flies. Examining the few Sarracenias we have, shows that the pitchers, which are usually stuffed with all sorts of flying insects, have almost nothing in them. 

Previous July rainfall and PV inverter (light levels) were as below, showing just how variable this ‘summer’ month is. Or rather how variable a month it now is. I feel I should go back through my records and make a note of the number of rain free days, since for haymaking this is often more important than total rainfall. Although even this doesn’t tell the whole story – what we desperately need is at least 2 dry days in a row. 3 would be even better, but for the last 2 years, such a weather window is increasingly rare. No wonder that most commercial winter fodder around us is cut, wilted and wrapped in plastic as haylage or silage. But then they don’t have the flowers or insect life in these fields.

In the sunnier moments the garden has looked lovely.

The month ended with 3 hot sunny dry days – perfect haymaking weather, at last, and after an intense period of hard work, we managed to cut enough to fill our sheds to the required point. Even if it nearly made us ill, at times. However the month as a whole was yet another generally cool, and a disappointing one, as the Met Office summary, and our own limited data below, reflects.

Apart from our active 6 honey bee colonies, it’s been a terrible year for insect numbers, fewer swallows, and the rare sight of a large bat foraging over the yard during daylight on 2 occasions. I made the following YouTube of this, only to discover that the bat was being chased by honey bees! I’m still trying to unravel what was going on – were they drones sensing a potential mate, or workers, threatened by its colour, flight or sonic emissions?

We also found two dead moles in the garden – often a seasonal  occurrence as youngsters set up new territories, and an abseiling slug outside the back door!

I have written similar summaries of our weather for nearly all of the last 14 months.

2013:  67.6 mm – PV record -N/A – 20 dry days

2014:  64.1 mm  – 468.6 KWH  – 15 dry days

2015: 127.3 mm – 379.1 KWH – 7 dry days

2016:  86.4 mm  –  390.6 KWH – 11 dry days

2017: 138.3 mm – 406.77 KWH – 10 dry days

2018:  74.5 mm – 508.11 KWH – 20 dry days

2019:  73.8 mm – 460.61 KWH – 16 dry days

2020: 121.1 mm – 399.77 KWH – 15 dry days

2021:  77.6 mm – 470.28 KWH – 14 dry days

2022: 112.1 mm – 490.49 KWH – 21 dry days

2023: 201.3 mm – 377.75 KWH – 6 dry days

2024: 123.4 mm – 410.67 KWH – 7 dry days