Heat

July 22 2026

A much anticipated rose this year, lady of shallot

We are in our third heatwave of the year. Getting anything useful done after 10am is proving very difficult, so we have been waking with the sunrise in order to get garden jobs, animal care and chores done. Some days, the plants need watered twice, and the bantam duck pond definitely needs topped up halfway through the day.

Trying to lower one’s consumption and waste takes extra time. Instead of just chucking the pond onto the grass and refilling with the hose (during a drought), I can fill buckets with the stinky water, and use it for the plants. Some days I do this! But this pond is at one end of the field, and our crops are at the other. It’s tough in 30 degree heat, and often times I turf it out onto the grass, knowing that at least it will make the grass grow for the sheep - who should be back any day now.

I have resown peas, cosmos and carrots. While common sense suggests that I might be too late for any of these to bear anything functional, we aren’t meant to be able to grow tomatoes outside here, and yet here I have a bowl of sun ripened, home grown tomatoes from the garden.

We have been drinking smoothies with frozen fruit from our freezer! Which have been helping with the heat immensely, and using our dishwasher a lot. We are facing an as of yet undefined issue with our solar; we are pulling in about 350W across three solar panels. Last year we were getting between 800 and 1200W in this weather. Our shed appliances (Fridge, Freezer, Dishwasher) are connected to their own solar panel, which is pulling in approximately 350W on its own. So far it seems like the problem might be related to our backup battery, which won’t charge above 30%, but we are not sure.

Our sourdough starter is exhausted with the heat and I’ve been keeping it in the fridge because of the fast, turbulent rise and flop, but this works well anyway since we’re taking a break from flour and processed foods. Three or four times a year we cut out refined sugar and eat a plan heavily inspired by Dr Greger, and The Blueprint Protocol.

Meal one: Broccoli, black lentils, mushrooms, rice. Dressed with EVOO and Soy Sauce.

Meal two: Huge bowl of nuts and seeds. Sometimes a few spoonfuls of muesli, sometimes a bit of pea protein. Topped with cherries, berries and almond milk.

Meal three - this varies a lot but is often something like: Barley, tempeh, kale, pea, bean and nut salad. Dressed with mustard, balsamic, EVOO dressing.

While doing this, we lift slightly lighter weights, cut back a little on cardio and up our yoga. We typically get better sleep, better poops and more energy, and it lasts until someone has a party, a birthday, or a stressful life event happens. We enjoy the cycle though, because sometimes it’s nice to sleep in late and go to the local cafe for a freshly baked pastry and a big filter coffee, or share cake with your nephew on his birthday.

CROWS

Since building the new chicken run earlier this year and moving birds into this run, in a different part of our field, we realised that we have put them under yet another tree which happens to already be home to a number of birds. There are downsides to this - sometimes our birds end up sharing food and water with the wild ones, the occasional magpie comes to peck open an egg, and there’s a higher likelihood of catching diseases - however since our birds free range anyway, these risks exist anyway. To be clear, we take necessary precautions during the avian influenza season, keeping our birds penned and housed, but Spring through Autumn they are so free range, they have to be chased back to bed.

The upsides, on the other hand are numerous but subtle. One such upside as I suggested last time, is that every day at around 6pm we get to see the most beautiful display of juvenile starlings, both visually and aurally. One much larger upside I could never have imagined, is that the Hooded Crows who live in one of the huge, ancient hazels, have been fending off buzzards. Given that not one, but two of our chickens got carried off by buzzards last year, we are delighted to have friends in these corvidae, and have been leaving out offerings of cracked corn and sunflower seeds on their favourite perches.

While I am not unhappy we got our geese, a large part of the reason we got them was to defend against flying predators, and I find myself wondering if we could have just befriended the Crows earlier on. Our neighbour two fields over has a tendency to shoot them. I’m not sure if he ever hits any, but I do wonder if that’s why his car is always covered in bird shit while ours is somehow missed.

A few days later.

I’m sitting in the sunny doorway, laptop on my knee to do some university work. I’ve just finished work, and watered the tomatoes while waiting on a ping scan. Cow is snuggled up beside me, and a holly blue butterfly has flown overhead and into the hut. Over to the right I can see Chicken curled up in the long grass. Straight ahead I can see a peacock butterfly resting on the solar panel, if I look left to the Verbena Bonariensis, it’s covered in butterflies and bees. Geoffrey, Ava and Goose are walking back and forth past me every now and again, quacking softly. Further left beside the broken down greenhouse are Joni and Asparagus, the geese. The chickens are dust bathing in a long abandoned raised bed.

A tender moment watching Gus watch a butterfly. It doesn’t last long, and a few minutes later he starts flapping and honking, running in circles with Joni Mac. Cow has decided to get up and join Chicken, cuddling together in the grass under a damson tree.

Kiki has realised she can fly quite well, and spends a lot of her time sunbathing on top of the hutch with Chuck, who can also fly, but not quite as well as Kiki.

In the time it has taken me to write this I have seen a lot of butterflies: Meadow brown Wall brown Small tortoiseshell Common Blue Holly blue Chalk hill blue Ringlet Peacock Red admiral Green veined white

And probably more Life is good, I am fortunate.