Mysterious Meteorology and Manifestations

Storms, wind, hail and rain every night for 8 days so far. Biblical proportions of small toadlings hopping everwhere, plagues of biting flies too. Maybe someone is trying to tell us something here!
So is this Rio or what?.....sun and up to 35 degree heat, 99% humidity and awesome storms? This is the strangest weather so early in the year. The sky has entertained us with some spectacular cloud scapes, deluges of rain and hail and the dogs have been beserk, Scraps trying to hide out under the stairs or in our wardrobe space and Bugsy looking very hangdog and worried. Not to mention the power outs.

The combination of heat, rain and sun has been great for the garden though and everything is putting out in spades!! Sadly including the weeds. I have had to give myself a strict regime of daily weeding just to keep the weeds down and even then not gone entirely. Can only work outside mornings and sometimes a little in the afternoon, otherwise heatstroke and migraines.
The cherry tree has done us proud this year and the harvest has been such that we can even let the resident blackbirds and jays help themselves.Fraser has been getting up earlier than me to go out and scythe the woods, terraces and strim the fields which have grown up again since last month. And boy do we have hay!!! Fraser made great hay rakes..from cedar and hardwood dowel- so much lighter than the portuguese version made with pine and 10 inch nails!
Steve and Vanessa helped with the field strimming and windrow raking and, after letting the grass dry and with the help of a large plastic sheet we have now 4 huge haystacks and a burn pile ready for the winter solstice! Fraser found our little wild gladioli in the woods that are few and far between but gorgeous. Whilst taking a photo of our only white rose I discovered this little fella...
a crab spider matching the colour perfectly.
Hot afternoons have been spent making yet more Lemon Curd ( no husks down the loo this time) alcoholic beverages...YUM! ( Limoncello and Orangecello) and have just done a batch of Cherry Brandy. We took them along with some of Fraser's smaller paintings and a couple of cushion covers and other patchwork pieces for a boot sale we went to down south of here...........complete waste of time sale wise but a nice day out and met some new people.

Fraser is disciplining himself to draw something every day and we have been working on landscaping the last untidy areas of the garden.
We have finally sorted the patch where the washing line hangs at the end of the kitchen collonade with a pathway and re-planted beds As we are a ways from the sea we have created a beach just in front of our woodshed! In order to keep it weed free we levelled the area and put down one-way membrane and sand! It looked so much like a beach cabana that I decorated the edges with stones and shells and we plan to do more! ( I see Plastic Flamingos in our future - F) Needless to say the dogs are thrilled with what they see as a new playground...Watch this space!
The new pond planting is really settling in. And looking at this photo it seems out of date. More pics next month.Meanwhile poor old Bugsy still waits patiently ever hopeful that he will see the phantom carp and goldfish that we took out last month-Finally..spot the snake!
This gorgeous metre long ladder snake decided to become part of our rustic fence for a while until gently encouraged to go and find his home, which seems to be somewhere out in the front rockery we think-Not venemous but can bite!