I looked up the blog for July 2022 and the first paragraph pointed out the obvious signs of climate breakdown staring us in the face with temperatures reaching 30 degrees, followed by severe floods. We have now surpassed that heat by considerable degrees and added in the driest July with less than a quarter of the average rainfall. Reservoirs are at an all time low, water companies freely spray fresh drinking water out via their broken pipes and regularly spread human sewage across our beautiful beaches. Are they prosecuted? Do the bosses still take obscene pay bonuses? No and yes to those questions. It used to be that 'profit' and 'bonuses' were issues you thought about after you had ticked off all the necessary tasks needed to keep a business viable. Nowadays, it seems that the bonuses and profits are taken first and then the left overs are put to the upkeep of the infrastructures, because of course, you have to accommodate the shareholders' greed before you provide anything to the customer. It's an obscenity that any utility, necessary for human life, is put into private ownership. Sermon over - for the time being.
Here's what the MET Office had to say about July. 'Unprecedented heatwave with maximum temperatures of 40.3c...causing speed restrictions..service cancellations due to line damage, track deformation and signalling equipment failure...heat damaged runways causing suspension of flights..thousands of homes lost power after infrastructures overheated..sand was spread to stop melting surfaces on roads and wildfires began to emerge across Greater London and South East England'. The London Fire Brigade had its busiest day since WW11. This was described in the media in various ways; 'Meltdown Monday', 'Blowtorch Britain', 'July scorcher to blast Britain' All this was going on during the conservative party hustings for the new Prime Minister. Climate breakdown claimed two minutes of their TV debate and a promise to scrap the 'green levy' and to put climate on the 'back burner', describing solar farms as a blight on UK's landscape but apparently fracking will go ahead and we all know how lovely that looks on the landscape. Seventy five percent of the population are worried or very worried about the impact of climate breakdown (Office of National Statistics). The stupidity beggars belief.
And what of the wilding, I hear you cry. On it goes, trying to deal with all the effects of human activity. By the end of the month, it was a scorched field, bleached of colour, with many young trees and hedges suffering. A hosepipe ban came into force in Cornwall and other places around the UK. We are on a bore hole and not subject to the same rules, as indeed, are most of the farms around here. However, as it would have been a full time job to water all the areas that were suffering from drought conditions,we made a decision to prioritise the vegetables,fruit bushes and newly planted hedgerows. Most of the plants and all the grass will grow back next year but we are going to have to re-think our planting options in the light of these new Summer temperatures.
Most of the wildflowers put in a show but left more quickly than in previous years. Fleabane, wild marjoram, ragworts and brambles all seemed unaffected. The ever reliable pink campions were less abundant and more faded in colour. We had a magnificent supply of swallows, after a very poor start to the season. There were colonies of fifty or more gracing the field and telegraph poles. Other visitors with their young were blue tits, (several families), woodpeckers, who would feed their young as they clung to various parts of the bird feeders, bullfinches, robins, goldfinches and on the ground, the lovely wren. We are still hearing regular night time meetings of the owl population but sadly, we have not seen any sightings of the barn owl this month. This is unusual and is causing us concern, we need to investigate this further. The owl's reidence is at the back end of a barn in the roof, which is about 40 foot high with no stairs - I'll get back to you on how I manage that!
The blackberry fruit has been a complete winner this year. We've been picking all through June and July. The early fruit was the most plump and juicy we have ever collected. By mid July their size had shrunk and they were more sharp in taste but better for jam making. By the end of the month the bushes were once again covered in a new crop of red, unripe blackberries. These fruits have been part of our diet for hundreds of years; seeds have been found in the stomach of a neolithic man dug up in Walton on the Naze, Essex. They can be used for all sorts of culinary delights; jams, jellies, wine, liqueurs and pie fillings and teas to name a few. In addition to this they make a great hedge plant because of their ability to weave in and out of other plants and to re-root wherever their arch touches the ground. According to G.C. Nuttall, my 'go to' source on wildflowers, the shoots were used 'to bind down the sod on newly made graves'. And to top it all their long strands have been used for centuries in hedgerow basket weaving, not only for their strength but for the beauty of their deep red colour. Folklore tells us that blackberries should never be eaten after Michaelmas Day, 29th September. Apparently, this was the day Lucifer was thrown out of heaven and then landed on a blackberry bush. What with all the thorns, Lucifer wasn't best pleased, threw a little hissy and cursed the blackberry from then on, saying he'd spit or stamp on them or maybe even, wipe his tail on them. Ponder on that before you pop a blackberry into your mouth after September 29th.
Comments