August 201 Back to July
Wednesday 1st
15 to 23 to 18°C. 7.87kWh 2kW max. Another pleasant day with sunny intervals and a light breeze.
Spent most of the afternoon putting up a new television aerial. The last one was damaged earlier in the year by the 'Beast from the East' with frozen snow breaking several of the elements and then last week the windy weather damaged even more to the point where the reception of some of the minor channels was breaking up. So we bought a more robust one which will hopefully last better; it certainly is giving better signal strength.
As usual it took longer to remove the old equipment than fit the new one. At least it wasn't too windy.
Thursday 2nd
16 to 28 to 20°C. 6.51kWh 1.7kW max. Mostly cloudy with a light breeze.
Turned some of the compost into the next bin to make room for shreddings from all the hedging I have cut over the last few months. Unfortunately I can't do any more cutting for a few days because one of the handles broke off the loppers. Sheer metal fatigue from the enormous amount of work I do with them.
Friday 3rd
17 to 26 to 20°C. 7.81kWh 2.3kW max. Variable cloud with some short very sunny periods but also black clouds and drizzly rain in the afternoon. Uncomfortably humid.
Finished potting on the canterbury bells for next spring. Put more soil in the bags of red celery and drew more soil back into the trenches with red celery. These are now growing quite vigourously since the rain earlier in the week.
Saturday 4th
17 to 24 to 15°C. 10.21kWh 2.3kW max. A very sunny day with a light breeze tempering the heat.
Nothing like the mid-forties in southern Spain and Portugal. The far end of the polytunne sometimes goes above 40°C and I wouldn't want to stay there for more than a feww minutes.
Found some shade under the ash tree to shred some more of the hedge clippings. Then another hour of watering including the leeks, celery, cabbages, sprouts and broccoli which are again suffering from the lack of rain.
Sunday 5th
15 to 29 to 18°C. 10.83kWh 1.9kW max. Another sunny day with less breeze so felt warmer.
Pat collected Cowan and Euan who are going to stay with us for the week. On the way back she bought me some new loppers so I can carry on trimming the hedges.
Monday 6th
13 to 26 to 18°C. 9.82kWh 2.1kW max. Thin cloud with sunny intervals and very little breeze.
More hedge cutting and shredding. Some of the chrysanthemums which I only transplanted into 3L pots stopping them for the 2nd time are already growing so fast that they will need a 3rd stop; something I usually don't need to do or only with some in September.
Tuesday 7th
12 to 22 to 15°C. 9.81kWh 2kW max. Started off bright and sunny but clouded over in the early afternoon with dark clouds, a strong breeze but no rain.
For the first time in several weeks I wore clear rather than dark wrap-round glasses to go on my evening bike ride and I wasn't hot and sweaty when I got back. But still no rain forecast.
Wednesday 8th
11 to 20 to 13°C 7.21kWh 1.8kW max. A blustery day with some sunny intervals and a few short light showers only providing around 1mm.
Continued the hedge cutting.
Thursday 9th
9 to 18 to 12°C. 8.81kWh 1.6kW max. Cloudy with some short sunny periods but also some heavy showers amounting to 3mm rain.
At least I won't need to water outside for a day or two and there was enough in the tanks to pump around 500L into the polytunnel.
Friday 10th
9 to 15 to 11°C. 7.61kWh 1.9kW max. Sunny for a time in the morning before some very black clouds moved in with thundery heavy showers and strong gusty wind for most of the afternoon; a total of 10mm rain. We pumped some more of the excess in the water butts into the polytunnel.
Not a day for working outside.
Saturday 11th
6 to 18 to 15. 10.61kWh 2kW max. Cold clear start followed by a sunny morning but with a cold north westerly wind. Clouded over in the afternoon with some light drizzle.
Pat took the boys back to meet Sarah half way to take them home.
Sunday 12th
16 to 2o to 17°C. 3.94kWh 800W max. 8mm of rain overnight and stayed mostly cloudy warm and humid with a few spots of drizzle for most of the day before another 4mm rain fell in the evening.
Managed to stake and tie some of the chrysanthemums between the showers. The recent rain has encouraged them to grow after sitting dormant during the hot dry weather.
Monday 13th
11 to 19 to 13°C. 6.04kWh 1.8kW max. Sunny for a time this morning but cloudy for the rest of the day with some light rain showers. Feeling cold in a strong NW breeze. So back to the more normal British summer.
This evening it came clear, so clear you could see the Milky Way which even in our rural setting is dimmed by the light pollution on the horizon nearly all the way round. Mars was bright red in the south east, it is very near at the moment, and I saw several Perseid meteors streaking across the sky. It could be quite cold by the morning.
Tuesday 14th
13 to 20 to 15°C. 5.04kWh 1.6kW max. Mainly cloudy with a cold windy and a few spots of rain.
Picked some Laxton's Fortune apples so I can now have apples in my porridge every morning again. A large crop but quite small but they taste OK. The Russets which will follow in September are much larger. The Cox and Bramley have also cropped well.
Wednesday 15th
14 to 23 to 18°C. 5.16kWh 1.8kW max. Another mainly cloudy day but feeling warm and humid as the wind moved to the south.
Thursday 16th
14 to 19 to 13°C. 6.98kWh 1.6kW max. 2mm of rain overnight and stayed cloudy till late afternoon when it cleared to a cooler evening.
Friday 17th
10 to 17 to 16°C. 4.07kWh 800W max. Very cloudy with a few spots of drizzle. It actually started to warm up in the evening.
The pansy miniplug plants came in the post and I planted them in 12 cell trays, 180 altogether.
Started staking the sprout plants. Last year they were knocked over by high winds and heavy snow before they were fully swollen. This is supposed to be because the hair roots were damaged; staking should help to prevent this.
Saturday 18th
12 to 22 to 19°C. 3.92kWh 1.2kW max. Another warm cloudy humid day.
The Autumn Fragrance Stock plug plants came in the post and I planted these too into 12 cell trays. These are something I haven't tried before. I usually grow Brompton Stock in the summer which have a strong carnation-like fragrance, especially at night. These are supposed to start flowering in late September and carry on into the spring.
Sunday 9th
16 to 23 to 18°C. 3.44kWh 900W max. Even cloudier than yesterday, quite dark at times, but no rain/
Back to hedge cutting. Dug up a couple of the maincrop potato plants. The tubers are quite small and the stems and leaves are still green so we are hoping it will rain and they might grow some more.
Monday 20th
17 to 24 to 19°C. 5.03kWh. Warm and humid with a few glimpses of the sun.
I was rather busy with my software today so didn't do much in the garden. Pat did some more shredding.
Tuesday 20th
17 to 25 to 18°C. 6.48kWh 1.9kW max. Cloudy with some sunshine around lunchtime. Feeling very warm and humid.
Wednesday 21st
17 to 24 to 14°C. 5.83kWh 2kW max. Sunny intervals in the morning, clouding over in the afternoon with some rain (2mm) in the early evening. Felt much cooler as the rain passed.
I think I have finally cracked the problem with my software so might be able to do some work in the garden tomorrow unless it rains all day.
Tuesday 20th
17 to 25 to 18°C. 6.48kWh 1.9kW max. Cloudy with some sunshine around lunchtime. Feeling very warm and humid.
Wednesday 21st
17 to 24 to 14°C. 5.83kWh 2kW max. Sunny intervals in the morning, clouding over in the afternoon with some rain (2mm) in the early evening. Felt much cooler as the rain passed.
I think I have finally cracked the problem with my software so might be able to do some work in the garden tomorrow unless it rains all day.
Thursday 22nd
11 to 17 to 10°C. 6.43kWh 1.4kW max. Mainly cloudy with a strong cold breeze, a few sunny intervals and a few spots of rain.
Back to hedge cutting.
Friday 23rd
9 to 15 to 8°C. A mainly sunny day with some heavy showers(4mm) and a cold wind.
Now it is cooler made a start on removing the stumps from the garden near the wood shed which we cleared last winter. This is going to be a big job.
Saturday 24th
7 to 17 to 10°C. 8.8kWh 1.9kW max. Another sunny day with a cold wind.
Continued digging out the tree stumps from the area next to the wood shed. The cypress stumps were easy because they were cut down several years ago and were rotten. The holly and field maple were still alive and it took a lot of work with a mattock to cut under them and get below the roots.
Sunday 25th
10 to 18 to 14°C. 1.71kWh 400W max. Rained most of the morning (8mm in total) with some showers in the afternoon.
Monday 26th
13 to 16 to 13°C. 3.71kWh 1.2kW max. Cloudy with a few brighter periods. Less wind so felt warmer.
Tuesday 27th
13 to 17 to 14°C 4.43kWh 1.2kW max. Another mostly cloudy day.
Wednesday 28th
13 to 15 to 10°C. 3.94kWh 600W max. Mostly cloudy.
The polyanthus and primrose mini plugs came in the post. Moved then into 12 cell trays. They were quite dry and yellowing when they arrived. I suspect they were sent before the Bank Holiday on Monday and have been hanging around in a depot for several days. Most of them should be OK. The trays they come in have 180 holes and quite a few have more than 1 tiny plant in them. They only claim there are 170 and in the case of the polyanthus I filled 19 trays of 12. Even if quite a few die there will still be more than that left.
Thursday 30th
8 to 17 to 10°C. 7.91kWh 1.8kW max. Clear overnight and some long sunny intervals during the day. Clear again this evening.
Friday 31st
8 to 23 to 12°C. 10.66kWh 2.0kW max. Clear cool start and remained clear and sunny all day.
Officially this is the last day of summer but it seems summer is not over. Started tidying up and training the chrysanthemums; when they start to flower we will know Autumn is here.
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