Monday, July 19

Sometime in the evening yesterday the temperature suddenly dropped ten degrees. This morning I wore a t-shirt for the first time in a couple of weeks because I felt cold without it. I read that the heatwave has moved south west to England where children have started to turn up at casualty with serious sunburn.

The last few weeks have had dramatic effects on the plants and vegetables. Our redcurrant bushes have sprung into hyperactivity and have become fuller than we have ever seen.

I spend much of the day picking berries. I fill a bucket and then several tubs until we have no more room left to store them.

The rhubarb has also had an active summer, even though we moved it six or seven weeks ago and feared that it might day or take a couple of years to recover.

Irma leaps into action and makes redcurrant and rhubarb chutney with an adventurously improvised recipe that involves both honey and soy sauce.

In the evening we will go to sit in the garden and abandon the idea after about ten minutes because we both feel cold. Score one for approaching autumn.