FRAZZLE DAY

Its been announced and I well believe it, a heatwave coming our way, 37 degrees celcius, the hottest day in history in the UK. Any doubts about global warming, check out what is happening all around with the weather patterns. We are dry, lack of rain in the winter and now we have a heatywave coming along. It is being announced by the chickens who are also adapting by reducing egg production, an no, I am not introducing fans to get them to lay more. If its too hot for me to do anything worthwhile then it has to be too hot for them to lay eggs. My DS sportsday was cancelled 2 weeks ago because a sudden rainfall had made the ground too slippery and today it has been cancelled because it is too hot. They now reschedule it for am and not pm in an effort to get it to happen without children expiring from heat exhaustion. The salads are boulting so the chickens are getting the best of that but there is definitely some plant, animal and human distress going on about the change in temperature.

I am still considering changing the planting in my garden to a zone up if this is going to be a thing for the future and might need to put in some more planning to water conservation. I think it will need a 2 prone attack on this, plants that do not need as much water and tolerate a hotter climate and a grey water saving and water saving facility that enables us to irrigate the garden more that what we are doing at the moment. The ground is still damp underneath because we have been mulching it, but I believe we could do more to prepare for the future.

Gardening needs to be done before 10 am and after 6 pm as it is way too hot work outside. So it may be olives, lemons, lavender, rosemary, peaches and nectarines and less apples, beans and plums?

Changing weather patterns also may affect the way we work, we may introduce a siesta to miss the midday heat and work longer into the evening to make use of the cooler hours after the sun has gone down. That may not sound too bad........has its advantages too. Its all about adapting.

A small report I read but cannot link to is that there is also evidence that electricity demand is higher in the summer now as we all demand air counditioning and so there is no lull in the demand for energy. Solar power has to be a real attraction here and yet it is still very expensive.