Greeks say No! but to what & storm! what storm?

The "Greek Tragedy" rumbles on in the top left corner but Princess Charlotte takes centre stage this morning in the Express 

great stage on "Le Tour" yesterday with some quite wet weather.  The peloton became split and in the sprint for the line Cavendish was 4th being well beaten by Greipel, Sagan and Cancellara.  

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The weather was set to rain yesterday with forecasters all in agreement that it would rain by 15:00 at the latest 

LM keeps an eye on me as i prepare to do a little logging 

just a bit of finishing off from the far end of the pic then tackling the dead tree from the 3 larger trees we cut down a few days ago 

 I spotted this wasp nest in the wood shed and a wonderful construction looked but it has to go 

inside was this comb complete with what i presume must be young wasps developing 

 still in the sunshine around 15:30 we spotted the storm clouds approaching 

 threatening as they were they produced nothing to speak of locally 

 in the garden Sally's veg department is coming along fine and these squashes are doing particularly well.  The courgettes in other growbags provided our evening meal - - - 

nice view from the top of the garden this morning with the moon still visible

a couple of Jackdaws come looking for the daily fatball!  im not putting one out for a few days, they manage to devour it in minutes! 

 once again an nice warm Temp. to start the day 

the weathercam looks across the valley with a clear blue sky although the weather bods give us an increasing chance of rain as the day progresses

Enjoy the day 

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Statins linked to deaths? & Wimbledon and the Tour de France to watch!

The Express which has trumpeted and put down statins reports 227 deaths from the magic pills 

Wimbledon is at the end of its fiest week and the weather and tennis have been great, it was nice to see that the forces were remembered yesterday on "Super Saturday"

The Tour de France kicked off yesterday with a time trail in Utrecht as expected on this "specialist" first day some of the more famous names were languishing down from the top order of play at the end.  Today's stage of 166 km will get the teams working together and should be good to watch 

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 a cool 11c this morning after the last few warmer starts to the day 

 A fair bit of cloud showing on theweather cam and forecasters are "sure" there will be rain after 15:00 

 plentyr of activiry on the bird feeders earlier 

and Mr Squirrel is "caught in the act" trying to empty the sunflower seed feeder! 

Enjoy the day 

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Budget boost! & overnight thunderstorm

The Express claims a "victory" in its crusade to get inheritance tax increased in the budget next week - - - thank goodness for that! - - - 

As predicted in the Express headline yesterday "heatwave to trigger storms" and last night proved the story true

pics like the one above are plentiful in the media this morning and i managed to get one myself around 03:00 after being woken by the thunder earlier 

i triggered the movement sensor in one of our garden cameras and as the lightening lit up the sky it snapped this amazing pic.  Clicking on the pic to enlarge it shows the time stamp to be 03:11 which would normally pitch black !  The rain was hammering down and my weather station recorded almost half an inch in about 45 minutes.  

 it was an early start to the logging yesterday with 23c expected later on 

the mist is clearing by the time i get to the job and its nice and cool 

back home the lavender out in the front garden is looking great it was a candidate for removal in the winter when it looked all twiggy but it has had a reprieve at such a good show - - - 

 very warm already this morning and the humidity is high after the rain earlier 

 the weathercam shows the mist and low cloud on the top of the valley rim, the chance of rain will diminish to 5% by 12:00 

note the pile of empty sunflower husks on the tray, they are left by the squirrel as it sits there and has a feast on the kernels.  The fat ball feeder looks to have been raided by the jackdaws! - - - 

Enjoy the day 

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Get ready for Storms! & its a misty morn

More about the glorious weather we are having from the Express, this time warning that storms are being triggered by the current "heatwave" and that temperatures are set to soar again this weekend - - - 

This story informs us that the Oceans face acidification unless CO2 emissions are drastically cut.  It would appear that "governments" have agreed a 2 degree increase in temperature is acceptable, not so! says this story and warns we are on a "dangerous path" - - - 

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  we have spotted a bit of wasp activity under one of the pergolas so that needs some attention, this wasp nest was in the top of the wood shed, lovely structure but it had to go 

LM is in full hunting mode right now with last nights tally being a 10:00pm rabbit and a 02:00 mouse!  We have switched back to the humane trap under the kitchen cabinets because the rodents are not setting off the snap shut ones.  I swear the same mouse has been brought in form the garden more than once! - - - 

 it was an 06:30 start yesterday to get this lot into firewood 

 the bit at the far end of this pile was the result it doesn't look much but its in a bit of a depression.  Today's target is a little less of a pile which fell onto the track, another early start to avoid the heat 

 after last nights rain and the early morning humidity its a soggy garden morning

Mr Squirrel will just not give up!!  

 a pleasant cooling 9.2 on the Temp this morning 

the weathercam though is picking up the misty conditions.  The weatherpeeps will have us believe that its going to be a very warm day once the sun breaks through 

Enjoy the day 

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hottest day at Wimbledon ever & firewood cutting done early to avoid the heat

The Express covers how hot it was yesterday, Wimbledon recorded its hottest ever day at 96.3F, isnt it strange how "we" go back to F from C when recording "how hot it is" - - - bigger number more impact i suppose, for the C minded that was 35.72c. - - - 

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It was a hot one though and with plenty of warning it was an early start to the logging area 

the sun was just reaching the area of the tree to be sawn up, the idea is to lop off all the ends with the leaves then saw it up in situ 

a hot and sweaty 3 hours later its all complete 

a lamb comes to inspect my handy work, today's job is to throw all the bits onto the pile a little way up the track anything thicker than forearm size gets split before it joins the pile 

 a couple of Great Tits get on the bird feeder early to beat the heat 

Mrs Blackbird also appears 

not long after Mr Squirrel joins in 

Mrs Blackbird is also in on the act.  We we forecast a thunderstorm yesterday and watched one pass close by complete with thunder and lightening, all we got was a handful of drops from the big black clouds 

 19c 66F already 

the weathercam shows a heavily cloud laden sky but no sign of rain on the radar of any rain.  The forecast is for 24c and an increasing chance of rain after 15:00

Enjoy the day 

Follow this link to see  our weather website

Or this one just to see  Live webcam - - Birdfeeders

100f today & only working until 10:00!

the Express continues with its Heatwave line and tells us the Temp will reach 100f today.  similar stories  with advice about "surviving" the heat abound in the media today - - -

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The logging of yesterday was long and hot as the estimated time to get the 4 trees felled was a little awry 

 this dead tree was leaning the right way and proved to be no problem the 2 behind it are leaning towards a fence, away from the camera, and would both be difficult 

further down the hill we tied this one up to the back of Boris in order that it didnt fall onto a main track 

which seemed to work OK, I'll be sawing this up this morning before it gets too hot 

the largest of the other 2 was hitched up to Boris in an effort to get it to fall downhill but the pressures inside the tree had other ideas.  As it started to go i stepped back far enough to avoid the trunk kicking back as it split and left us with whats known as a "barbers chair".  It can happen when a tree is leaning in a particular direction. - - - the next one would prove extra difficult! .

with it hitched up to Boris i made the undercut and then gingerly tried to get the thing down.  

only after re-positioning Boris twice and giving it a good tug did it finally go, here it is on its way down 

 the right hand one did catch the fence a bit so that will be a repair job when i get to it later 

After all that effort we returned home for a quick shower and off to lunch in the sunshine at The Grouse the afternoon was spent in the garden talking about our other summer projects, and a little Wimbledon watching - - -

 almost 17c already! - - - 

the weathercam is looking at an almost cloudless sky with the weathermen hinting at maybe a short sharp thunderstorm today - - - 

Enjoy the day 

Follow this link to see  our weather website

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