The burst of hot sunny weather in the last week of May ended. June began with grey skies and the heaviest 24-hour rainfall for weeks, followed by days of sunshine, showers and cool breezes – much more like late April or May weather, in fact.

However, the garden and in particular hay meadows looked wonderful with more than 2000 orchids in the top meadow for the first time (there were none 10 years ago!). All areas of the meadow now seem to have some; in many parts, there are groups of tens or hundreds. A huge thrill and reward for the years of toil in getting to this stage.

To walk around this field in sunshine is a complete joy, to quote the comment a visitor left in the Thought Box 10 days earlier!. Made even more special by watching ‘our’ two or three swallows swooping low to snaffle garden chafers, which have hatched in large numbers over the last week.

There are still lots of Silver Y moths around, most of which arrived in the heat at the end of May.

But probably the most exciting moment for me was after deciding to walk up to the shepherd’s hut around 8.15 pm on the evening of June 3rd, as another rain shower threatened, glance towards the tall, multi-flower stemmed orchid in the foreground. Then suddenly see the unmistakable large brown/black ears, and then head of a hare emerge from the tall grass and flower stems in the mid-distance. Rather like the flash of a kingfisher on the stream, it was only a couple of seconds of sight, as it bounded, body unseen, downhill and over the field’s mid-ridge. But a thrill after all these years to finally see one on our land – I’d spotted one earlier in the year further up the hill, when we walked to check our spring water supply. Perhaps in due course I might manage a snatched photo?

Indeed I could. Just the following day, and even better, some wonderful video. What a thrill after all these years.

This was followed by many more sightings of an adult hare in upper and lower meadows, as well as finding a leveret around the house, and indeed photographing it resting amongst the Agapanthus at the gable end of the cottage.

5 rather scrawny swallow chicks left the barn and rested on the phone cable, early in the month.

I was very fortunate to be able to photograph a battered Silver Y moth pollinating the first Butterfly Orchid flowers to open, something rarely witnessed before. 

Our final garden open weekend of the year was very successful with around 50 visitors spread over the 4 sessions, and although no one saw a hare, one couple saw the flash of a kingfisher on the stream, which now has many juvenile salmonids resting at the tail end of runs, ready to dash upstream into deeper water, if surprised.

It’s been a good year for Burnet moths, and common butterflies, and I was thrilled to see a pristine Silver-Green washed Fritillary butterfly nectaring on bramble flowers by the stream. Only the second time I’ve ever seen one at Gelli ( the last was in 208), and by far the clearest photos I’ve managed to take.

The rainfall for the month was 133.8mm, with 20 dry days, and the PV record showed 467.39 KWH. Overall, a month very similar to last year’s June. Although split into a first half of days with rainfall on most days, followed by a drier spell of weather. However, as with May 2026, the three or four days at the end of the month apparently skewed the mean temperatures for the month to allow the Met Office to draw this conclusion – that it was the warmest June ever for England and the second warmest for Britain and Wales. This sort of headline worries me – from the point of view of plant and fauna life, surely a few days of a month only have a smaller impact on growth, than the weather for most of the other days of the month/season. This is not what is being emphasised. Scan my records of the parameters which I’ve recorded here in recent years to compare with the Met Office’s message, with maximum and minimum values highlighted:

2013: 73.5mm, 17 dry days, PV not available

2014: 41.55 mm, 19 dry days, PV –  542.15 KWH

2015: 74.9 mm, 20 dry days, PV –  520.24 KWH

2016: 115.7 mm, 10 dry days, PV – 413.44 KWH (No hay cut all month)

2017: 187.2mm, 12 dry days, PV – 371.8 KWH

2018: 24 mm, 18 dry days, PV – 550 KWH

2019: 158.8 mm, 10 dry days, PV – 402.2 KWH

2020: 174.5 mm, 5 dry days, PV – 415 KWH

2021: 33.1 mm, 17 dry days, PV – 477.4 KWH

2022: 124.3 mm, 12 dry days, PV – 470.6 KWH

2023: 68.9 mm, 15 dry days, PV – 561.9 KWH

2024: 66.9 mm, 14 dry days, PV – 443.7 KWH

2025: 143.7 mm, 9 dry days, PV – 459.7 KWH

2026: 133.8 mm, 10 dry days, PV – 467.39 KWH