Keeping the grass down around the skirt of the runs?

[Daphne]

I envy you your rain!

The weather is odd.  The forecast changes almost hourly.  Today is now forecast 36 and tomorrow 34, going down to 24 on Sunday, with some rain!  However, we have another bad dose of the dust from Africa, so the sky is overcast and so far its not hot at all, just warm. My breathing is bad and currently we have no water - the outside tap sheared off yesterday evening and you can't turn it off, so we've had to turn the mains off.  Luckily we have a public water fountain at the edge of our land so have been filling 5l water containers for the house.

No mow May would be a bit pointless here as most things are going over.  A few flowers start in January, but April is our main month for blooms and pollination.  By the time you get to May everybody is doing a major strim (not of lawns, nobody has a lawn, its too hot!) and hopes they don't have to do it again across the summer. Usually the heat will stop too much more growth and too much tall dry stuff is a real fire hazard.  I can honestly say I have never seen so many wild flowers/weeds as here, so its seems to work pretty well.  The worst thing is some people's liberal use of weedkiller (on whole olive groves or cherry orchards) but that seems to be less prevalent now, perhaps its the cost.

Beantree, one of my alltime best memories and photos of the Tarn are the amount of poppies in arable fields in June, against a brilliant blue sky; please don't disillusion me!

[Beantree]

Poppies only seem to grow where there is little competition @Daphne, so we have lots on re-seeded compost areas and nowhere else. Where the seeds come from is a mystery (in the grass seed?) and the flowers only last a day. What we do have is 8 species of Orchid, of the 43 in this county, but the Sérapias is the rarest, growing only within a kilometre of here in France and only in 3 recorded places. We have no intention of declaring the site and being invaded by naturalists. It is protected, so we may have restrictions imposed on us, but I think we do a pretty good job of protecting them, without outside interference. The Orchids are prolific this year and we have perhaps 10x or 20x more than 4 years ago when we stopped the farmer mowing it for hay. 'Lady' is perhaps the prettiest and the earliest, but a patch of pyramidal's is spectacular and we have many in full bloom now.

I agree with the fire hazard issue Daphne, due to dry lightening strikes, so we have no option but to keep 20 metres clear around the house. Strange that our motorised garden machines aren't fitted with spark arrestors though, which is a worry.

[Daphne]

I see that France has had a super-hot record breaking May, you have had it far hotter than us.  Here, the forecast is fast changing.  Now it says its going to rain tomorrow afternoon, and go down to 20 on Tuesday, we'll see.

You are privileged with your orchids, I hope you manage to get some photographs.  I am not knowledgeable about them at all, but they always felt super rare in the UK as we would only see them occasionally on the South Downs.   I looked up yours, it seems to have a large flower for an orchid, which is nice, it gives you more to see.  It reminds me of a gladioli, that sort of 'wrapped' emerging flower.

[Ursula123]

@Daphne a close up of a bee orchid taken this morning.

[Daphne]

Ah yes, I see the bee! Now here is a question, if the plant looks like it already has a bee visitor I wonder if other bees are put off by the competition, or whether they think 'this must be a good source of nectar?'  It must be so nice to see rare and exotic blooms.  I am thankful for the sheer quantity of flowers I see, but they are all pretty common.  Thank you for posting!

[Beantree]

At last the weather has returned to the seasonal normals, so 22C. We didn't get much rain though last night but we didn't get the tennis ball sized hailstones that came down in central France either.

They had a map of France yesterday on TV showing all the Departments and listing them for chance of drought this Summer. We are in the lowest category of 'possible' and there aren't many with that status. The other categories are 'probable' and 'very probable' which applies to 70% of France at the moment.

[Daphne]

Our temps have gone down to normal as well.  The rain which fell was pretty pathetic, tomorrow is forecast to be 22/day and 10/night, which is pretty chilly for us in May.  I am just thankful the dust storm has left, I was very grumpy being shut in for 2 days!

[Beantree]

Oh dear. On the forecast is what they call a 'canicule', which is defined as at least three days and nights of hot. The temperatures quoted on the local forecast are 38C for three days, culminating in a fourth day at 40C.

We picked a bad time to seed a wild flower patch! But whilst the hose is out for that, it's easy to turn it towards the chicken enclosure. Found out yesterday that the flow from the spray gun is a joke, but if you take it off the water will reach 20 metres. Time to buy a decent gun I think. We had a Hozelock one that we've had for years, but it split apart because of the water pressure here.

[Daphne]

Yes, we have that right now, its moving north on Thursday.  The only benefit to this heatwave is that the sky is still full of dust, so its not blue, and the temperatures where we are aren't super-hot, although still very hot.

We have the same issue with pressure, I have killed a couple of tomatoes by inadvertently exposing their roots by using the hose instead of a watering can.

[Beantree]

We had thunder storms last night and I didn't get much sleep, despite the double glazing. Water butts are full and the ground well soaked. Tomorrow is 35C in the afternoon, but perhaps some rain? Forecasts vary wildly from a maximum of 36C on Friday to a possible 40C? They all seem to agree though that on Sunday it ends with thunderstorms again and falls to a reasonable 29C.

We've had Sahara dust here as well @Daphne, but it's difficult to tell whether it's Sahara dust or soil dust from the agriculture as they are both the same colour. Having said that we do get some floating dust in the water butts sometimes. One thing is certain; we've haven't had so much moss on the roof of the van since we arrived here, despite cleaning it, waxing it, plus the searing sun.

We have to turn the water on with the nozzle open at the other end otherwise the hose fittings just blow straight off. It's 10bar here, so we don't really need a Karcher; just as well because we had one in England that had a split plastic pump housing just 2 weeks outside the 12 month guarantee and it had hardly ever been used. Will never buy another; there are better made alternatives.

[Beantree]

Our 'canicule' is growing in intensity. For the first time ever we are on 'red' alert for the effects of extreme heat, as are 11 other 'Counties'. The chickens were suffering yesterday and today is predicted to be at least two degrees hotter. It's 11.00 am and already they are panting. We started early this morning cutting a track through the hay to reach the top enclosure with the last piece of hosepipe we have spare. Both enclosures have been watered already and will be done again this afternoon. We have three cages set up in the house to house Big Bird, the bantams and Portia, our last remaining TNN who lives in the house when she wants anyway (usually found perched on the dog).

It has become progressively hotter in France over the last few years and is expected to continue to rise. Many people have recently installed air conditioning units (we haven't bought one yet, but we will) which now are overloading the National Grid, they said on the news this morning.

Heard it will be quite warm in the South of England today as well.

[Daphne]

I know in Australia keepers rig up shade netting and periodically dampen it to try to keep the birds in the shade and a bit cooler.  All you can do is closely monitor the situation I think for the birds.  For the humans we drink pints and pints of water, don't cook (just barbie), try not to eat too much/drink alcohol, and basically lie about all day, having done any essential things first thing in the morning.  We have cheap fly screen mesh on the windows, and sleep with windows open, and have them open on opposite sides of the house at night to catch any breeze there may be, although they are shut most of the day, as are the doors (glass in doors is not a good idea, its better if they are solid to keep the heat out).  We have resisted AC as well, and downstairs the house does maintain its coolness, its just the bedrooms.  Its not actually that hot here right now as we still have African dust, meaning the sky is overcast and the sun isn't getting through.  Courage!  I hope you have a picture of the TNN!

[Luvachicken]

32 degrees in Fleet at the moment with pale blue sky and not many clouds. Thank goodness I only work half day in school on Fridays..

I'm so glad we have hard floor downstairs now instead of carpet - so much cooler on your feet.

Bonnie doesn't quite understand that it is too hot for any of us  - I think she thinks we just don't want to play.

[Cat tails]

On 6/17/2022 at 3:17 PM, Luvachicken said:

Bonnie doesn't quite understand that it is too hot for any of us  - I think she thinks we just don't want to play.

Flo has the same issue today. She normally can go out in the garden and come back as she pleases when I’m home. But I now keep the garden door closed to keep the heat out. 
She’s also trying to get Red to wrestle with her in the garden. But he’s having none of it.

[Beantree]

So we have five cages in the house; four occupied and one waiting for the Marans, if necessary. It's 25C in here and near 40C outside, even at 20.00. We have a spare cage that we can use for the Cou-Nu tomorrow, but we'll have to move some furniture. I'm outside to water the wild flower patch in a minute. It's going to be hot!!

[Cat tails]

Pfff I feel for you @Beantree. I would melt… found it very hot today already and it was only 30 degrees here.

[Beantree]

We survived yesterday. The chickens are back outside and the cages are cleaned ready for tonight. The highest ever temperature so far in the kitchen of 25.5C which means there is a fan blowing air across the back of the fridge to keep the element cool, otherwise it goes into overheat and stops working.

Picture for @Daphne. Whilst Portia isn't actually on the dog in this early one, she's still pretty brave to get that close to a terrier.

After today, the temperatures begin to fall back to the seasonal average of 30C with an increasing chance of rain. Looking forward to that!

[Daphne]

That is an adorable photo!  I wasn't expecting Portia to have a head/comb like that, she must be one tough bird.  Its always the characters which are the best hens.

OH keeps coming indoors as the voice of doom.  Apparently it will be 19 on Tues and we will all freeze to death.  He is talking about putting the pellet burner on!  And making minestrone!

 

[soapdragon]

It's going from one extreme to the other! After melting here yesterday today is bloomin' chilly and very overcast. Hoping that the rain will fill the waterbutt as the runners are now defo off and running!

[Daphne]

It rained last night!

[Beantree]

It was supposed to rain here last night @Daphne, but it didn't AGAIN. 19C is now a distant memory; it's not even that cold first thing in the morning.

Our weather station says we have only had 18mm in the last month which is a deficit of 77% (60mm). I very much doubt we've had 18mm here. But over the last 12 months we are only 17% down (123mm), so no water shortage. On the subject of water shortages a place in the central region has no water at all because it is contaminated with E-Coli; haven't heard of that happening before.

They have now forecast rain on Tuesday, so we'll see what happens?

[Daphne]

We have had a very brisk wind this morning, and now it is clouding over, preparing for 3 days of cool and some wet. I am wearing jeans. Any different with you BT?

[Beantree]

Jeans here as well Daphne; until this afternoon when it had to be shorts because it hit 30C. Expecting some rain this evening in the form of thunderstorms, so just in case they arrive the debris netting is over the tomatoes. But the ground is so dry I can't get the pegs in, so the net is just draped over the top. 

Our lavender is in flower now and better than ever. It's full of bees and butterflies because all the surrounding fields have been cut; we are an oasis in a desert for these insects. Counted 11 different species of butterfly today. Might see more tomorrow?

[Daphne]

That's lovely, and I salute you for providing food for pollinators, its almost the single most important thing any of us with a garden can do.  I have a plant here which is wild, and I have to keep it cut back otherwise it takes over, its the native vipers bugloss, which you get in the UK, so maybe also in France.  It is a bit hairy, so use gloves to pull up/cut back, but it is covered in pink/purple flowers and in all my years of beekeeping I have never seen a plant which attracts bumbles and all other sorts of bee except honey bees (because the flowers are bell shaped), plus loads of butterflies and the hummingbird hawk moth.  Presumably it likes good drainage, so may not be suitable for your location, BT.  But it withstands the heat very very well.  Its excellent, and you can hack it back and it will regrow when conditions are cooler.  

[Beantree]

I think we have that plant; it has bright yellow roots and rips you to bits if you try to pull it out without gloves.

We've had a storm. Not much hail but 4cm of rain. There were a few dents in the courgettes. Thunderstorms with hail forecast for the next few days, so me taking the debris netting off the tomatoes was a wast of time; six hours later and its back on again!

We have 8 lavender plants, having replaced two that were too old. Apart from the butterflies we have perhaps 30 Humming Bird Hawk Moths and half a dozen species of bumble type bee. Hardly any honey bees as such; just a few from our neighbour's hives (we should get commission).

Nice to get the house back to a reasonable temperature. Back to 22C and hopefully we'll be back to even lower soon. Seems a bit daft coming to France and not being able to cope with the temperatures, but when we came here it wasn't like this. It's all changed in the last few years.