Record Breaking Heatwave

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So my five day break came and went and was such an anti-climax, I think in hindsight I’d rather had worked it. It wasn’t that things went wrong more that we both suffered from illness meaning more or less the whole five days were spent doing virtually nothing except watching TV.

I’ve tried to make light of it by doing odd jobs when I get home and make sure I do the watering in the cool early morning while the kettles boiling.

We managed to get the shed put up in the back garden and some things put away but there we no club visits and no days out that I’d hope we would have. Worst still ive got to work for the next 3 weeks including weekends. So thats just one weekend off in the last thirteen .

With alot of equipment now put away in the shed, its made for a smaller pile of stuff, behind the fence so I’ve managed to put up some more freebie hose items up making my watering system the envy of many in the area. I’ve now got another tuffhoze and a reel screwed to the fence to wind it on to.

This all attaches to the 4way tap connector and timers, which I mentioned recently. Added to this I’ve a watering irrigation kit, which I’ll hook up and irrigate some raised planting beds of some kind, so I can grow some vegetables, but that will have to wait until I finally get around to making some.

Last week a spokesman for Essex Weather said: “Temperatures are now reaching their peak across Essex. With this in mind and temperatures of over 40°C forcast I watered the plants very early and stayed inside for most of the day.

On Tuesday in Essex a new official county record of 39C was recorded at High Beech, near Epping Forest. Writtle also exceeded its previous record. So many records broken that day it was quite incredible.

The record came as the UK temperature exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for the first time ever when Heathrow reported a temperature of 40.2C at 12.50pm.

I did pop out the measure the temperature on my thermometer outside in the garden, it was measuring over 40°C, but apparently the temperature has to be measured in the shade, which is strange considering the hottest temperature isnt.

I managed to keep cool by not wearing any clothes and keeping as still as possible. That night sleeping even on top of the duvet on the bed was just unbearable.

We then had some days where it was cool and overcast to start with but since Thursday the temperature has started to rise again and by Sunday it was back to nearly 30°C once more. So hopefully it’ll be nice enough for for some more gardening and another clothes free day.

The dry hot weather can have its down side though as I found out on Sunday, when a field fire occured on farm lane near us today (approx 5 miles away).

I could see the smoke on my way home from work, maybe that was the reason why they were rushing around to get the wheat harvested in the surrounding area during the last five days.

Sunshine Delight

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The Bank Holiday came and went and as usual it was a working one for me,which meant today,Tuesday,would be my designated day off instead of Monday.Fortunately for me the temperatures held up and today also saw the 30°C+ temperatures see on the three previous days.

This afford me a clothes free gardening day and meant I could stay clothes free until around 5.30pm.

Always up early I was out and in the garden at around 7.30,first deadheading the plants on the extended patios before doing a first water at around 8am. There was dew and hazy mist around but the heat was already begining to rise at around 9.

Once the watering was done,I took advantage of the early start to cut back and trim the hedge on the right hand side and the bush half way down on the left. It took about and hour and looked much better as I cleaned up the cuttings from the lawn.

Next was cutting the lawn,which I’d not done for over a week and meant too I could pick up all the smaller bits in the mower box that I couldn’t pick up by hand.The temperatures were scorching so I took time out and went inside for a break and to do some housework.

At about 2.30 I ventured outside to cut the lawn edges all around before doing a second watering and finally to havest my beetroot crop.

For a first attempt and with free seeds from a gardening magazine I was pretty please,although some suffered from being to close together.

With that done,I tropped off indoors for a shower and to rest again after all it is my day off work.

‘Green Manalishi’

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After a couple of weeks away we managed a trip to our naturist club at the weekend,but it was only for the one night (not the whole weekend as planned) as the weather in our part of the country was not very promising at all.

We both arrived straight from work,with a takeaway and wine in hand and it was a pleasant relief to get out of our clothes after a week of record breaking temperatures. With a naturist holiday to Fuerteventura planned for mid September we enjoyed our evening naked,planning for more improvements to our humble abode and thinking what we’d need for our holiday.

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The insect population in this part of Essex decided once again to gnaw into me again even so after a pleasant evening eating,drinking and watching TV we turned in at around 10.45pm. Saturday awoke with the promised rain so at around 11am we headed off for home. After many hours thinking of a name the cabinchaletshed has one it’s now called the ‘ Green Manalishi’ mainly because it’s green but also in tribute to Fleetwood Mac classic of the same name.

Temperatures around the country rose to a peak of almost 38C on Thursday, which was the hottest July temperature recorded in British history, and forecasters predict the sunny weather will make a comeback three more times this summer. This comes as Britain faces a rainy spell this week, bringing in heavy downpours and strong gales with temperatures dropping down to 17 degrees. Forecasters say though that Britain is set to bake in three more Saharan heatwaves in the coming weeks with temperatures reaching as high as 35 degrees.

With temperatures like these it makes us wonder just why people still persist in wearing clothes when the obvious answer is just to take off all your clothes and be naked…as nature intended.