Churchtown Summer Afternoon.

Today the weather has been fine - for the first and apparently the last time for a good while. When I took the dog to Churchtown in the afternoon it felt quite strange to be wearing sandals and a shirt. Last time I was there, a couple of weeks ago, the meadows had just been mowed and looked very yellow; after the recent rain they are now quite green again. There was a small flock of longtailed tits, about a dozen, in the brambles - the first I have seen there.

One of the 'arable' fields, which are planted with various plants to provide winter food for the birds (teasels, barley, millet, etc) is full of thistles this year, and the thistledown was drifting across the various paths and meadows like snow - in one or two places it was actually forming drifts on the ground. Many, many butterflies, buzzards calling overhead, swallows flying high... a 'proper' August afternoon, in other words. But for tomorrow they are predicting heavy rain again over the whole country.