I was very - for me VERY - late to bed last night, as the hooligan Pippi decided it was SUCH a balmy evening after a hot day where she'd had to hide inside, and perhaps she would stay out longer. I can't sleep unless she is in. I was ready for bed at 9. She FINALLY came home, all innocent, at 11.30 . . . She had never been out after dark before and was clearly making the most of her freedom. Needless to say I have been tired today and stayed indoors after I had watered round. Payment has been some small tomatoes which I had at lunchtime, and a cucumber. New folk come to stay from this weekend. It has thankfully been cooler today - only 24 deg after yesterday's 31 or 32 deg. which was suffocating.
I have been listening to a programme about the Folklore (worldwide) associated with giving birth, from The Three Ravens podcast. Having put the sewing aside, till my brain is more awake, I began cutting up windfall apples to cook up with some of my recently picked and frozen blackberries, to make Blackberry and Apple Jelly for Thankyou gifts/Christmas gifts.
The fires seem to be all under control now but a lot of damage done. Horrid to read about the ones in Stourbridge and Dudley where homes have been lost.
I am covered in fresh bites and can report the damage done when a bitey thing gets inside your knickers . . . I have bites everywhere - this hot spell obviously encouraged more bitey things to hatch out.
Praying for rain here . . . The 30% chance of it hasn't shown up today . . .
Just leapt out of my seat when my phone came up with a Severe Alert! Unfortunately all in Welsh so I couldn't translate it. Went to the Gov.uk site and it's warning everyone here not to have fires, BBQ's, etc etc . . . as if the intelligent enough amongst us didn't already know this! Gosh, that really startled me. I thought there was a fire in the vicinity. Then it did it again in English . . . Didn't jump so high then.
According to NASA, Powys is the worst affected by wild fires - 166. Then Blaeneau Gwent with 113 and Carmarthenshire with 101.
My husband got the warning. I didn't. No alert to the mobile we use as a house phone either.
ReplyDeleteHope the bitey bits calm down soon.
Bites better today - horse flies have gone over, but left their mates to carry on without them!
DeleteOdd that only one of you got the warning. It is clearly to likely spread alarm amongst the elderly and I'm not THAT geriatric yet!
Frightened me too and it was loud, as I was at the bottom of the garden watering pots. I've been very good and taken Stepmum out to Matlock. She had a lovely time spending in the M&S Foodhall, then Boyes. We did a few charity shops as well. Then I treated her to a pub lunch on the way home. Came home and fetched the washing in and cleaned the oven. Miss Sheva has taken to lying under the buddleia as its shady, you can just see a pair of eyes staring at you. Xx
ReplyDeleteSounds like you and your stepmum had a nice time. Cleaning the oven in hot weather? I take my hat off to you. I just looked at mine and thought, gosh, that needs a clean . . . and did something else! Alfie lays under my The Lark Ascending rose bush, in the shade.
DeleteWell, the intelligent amongst us would know not to build a fire, but sadly not everyone is intelligent.
ReplyDeleteSadly, their are all to many who should be on the Darwin list - they would be if I caught hold of them. 4 x 14 yr olds arrested yesterday for starting one of the fires in Wales.
DeleteI've never tried making jelly/jam but it sounds delicious, have a nice weekend.
ReplyDeleteI have made it all my life. Some easier than others, from a setting point of view. I have my blackberry and apple in the jelly bag now, but not sure how much jelly it will make as not particularly juicy.
DeleteI think my evacuation advice has made you anxious, sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe dress is classic and darling.
No, watching the Fire map has made me worried. If you had heard the volume of this unexpected alarm (which is meant to be almost like a 4 minute warning type alarm!) you'd have been worried too.
DeleteI shall get back to the dress tomorrow and think before I do each step . . .
I had my phone in my bum bag when the alert came through. I thought what the heck is that, maybe a burglar alarm from one of the nearby factories. Then it went off again when I was driving my car. Yes the fires have been awful, but is it necessary to assume we are all stupid.
ReplyDeleteSOme of the fires - in fields - are started by a stray spark from hot farm machinery, or stones being struck together and a spark ensuing. The moorland fires here have largely been started by some very stupid arsonists. The first one up north was people setting off fireworks over moorland after a friend had died . . . Many of the Welsh ones seem to be put down to the TikTok "start a fire" challenge. What is the world coming to? Sadly, yes we do have to assume many people are stupid as they are still having BBQ's, having a nice little fire on the moors where they are camping, etc . . .
DeleteIn Victoria Australia we have ‘Total fire ban’ days for heat waves where we sometimes get temperature in the low 40’sC The fines are large and can also be gaol time. You can’t legislate stupidity but most bush fires probably start from dry lightening and mentally unstable people who light them on purpose! Your summer seems to have been warmer than our last few fairly mild ones. Take care JennyP
ReplyDeleteThere is gaol time here, if arson is involved. The difficulty is actually seeing someone do it. These people aren't mentally unstable just lacking in sufficient braincells to work out that starting a fire for a challenge isn't necessarily a very clever thing to do. Clearly wanting that coveted place on the Darwin Awards . .
DeleteThe recent spate of wildfires, particularly on northern moorland, are a direct consequence of the insane policies of DEFRA, who totally ignored years of warnings about banning controlled winter burns to limit the buildup of combustible material. Add in careless humans incapable of being in countryside without cigarettes, disposable barbecues etc and you have accidents waiting to happen.
ReplyDeleteSame consequences as California found when they stopped historic forestry practices - if you let combustible "stuff" build up then you get more and worse fires.
I agree, stopping controlled burns and having sheep removed from upland grazing has been very short-sighted. (Just mention the word Grouse and join the dots . . .) Even without direct human carelessness, it only takes a discarded bottle to start a fire. I am angry that many of the ones in Wales involve deliberate lighting. 4 x 14 yr olds have just been arrested over one fire in South Wales. Plus a 29 yr old woman who managed to burn 5 houses at Newbridge.
DeleteHere in Australia our first Nation People have practiced controlled burning for hundreds and hundreds of years but do modern governments listen to this advice not on your nelly more interested in air quality when Australia has the cleanest air in the world. Every summer in all states we have devastating bush fires where homes and lives are lost it's just awful no matter how they started if the underbrush is cleared it would make life a bit easier for the firefighters. There said my bit and got it off my chest. hope everyone stays safe. Shirley in OZ
ReplyDeleteYes, our Government likewise won't listen to Farmers, Gamekeepers and countryside people who know what should be done to protect the countryside from catastrophic fires like this. Just the mention of the word "Grouse" and it's like a red flag to a bull for our current Government. Yet it's more than the control of uplands used for shooting - it's about keeping the landscape a safer environment, and sheep play a big part in the control of growth which has been like tinder this year.
DeleteThe fire alert made us jump we thought aliens had landed. Regards Sue H
ReplyDeleteHah - pretty well the sort of thing I was thinking. Have we been invaded, I thought? Is there a fire just up the road and it's time to evacute?
DeleteWe get those kinds of warnings all the time...they're usually Amber Alerts for missing children (95% of which are parental abductions) and they induce heart attacks every time. Very jarring -- as they're supposed to be, and yet I can't help but think something less shrill would be equally as effective. Apparently our emergency alert sound, when compared with others around the world, is the most shrill....quite the achievement lol. I was going to ask if there had been arrests for the arson-incited fires then read through the comments. We did some eejity things as 14 year olds but nothing to the extent of that. Good grief. ~melanie
ReplyDeleteOh gosh - that is not something which would even occur to the powers that be to do a noisy warning about. I remember the old wartime siren which used to be sounded (it was on our local Community Centre, when I was a child) as it might still be needed for the 4 minute Nuclear warning . . . That was bad enough. TO have this shrill eldrich screach inches from me really made me leap.
DeleteYes - a few arrests for arson-caused fires. Apparently some 77 year old man has been having the time of his life too. Words fail me . . .
There is nothing worse than bites things in your knickers. You wind up with itchy places that you can't scratch in public!
ReplyDelete