Terrential rain again today, whats going on!

If you all moved to the state of Washington you would be baking in the sun right now. It's been in the upper 80s (Fahrenheit) most of the week! Dry, too, except for some occasional thunderstorms locally.

Kingfisher

OK, no need to rub it in.

Despite the weather forecast, the weekend didn't turn out too bad. Went to the Kent County Show on Sunday, which was a great way to spend the day (definitely one aspect of the British countryside that I would miss if I lived overseas). A flypast display by a Spitfire added to the day.
And having watched a sheep shearing competition, I now have great respect for those who do it for a living. Trying to shear 12 uncooperative sheep in about 12 minutes in sweatbox conditions is not an activity to be taken lightly. No wonder they are all built like whippets

Despite the weather forecast, the weekend didn't turn out too bad. Went to the Kent County Show on Sunday, which was a great way to spend the day (definitely one aspect of the British countryside that I would miss if I lived overseas). A flypast display by a Spitfire added to the day.
And having watched a sheep shearing competition, I now have great respect for those who do it for a living. Trying to shear 12 uncooperative sheep in about 12 minutes in sweatbox conditions is not an activity to be taken lightly. No wonder they are all built like whippets

One of these days I will time my visit so as to be able to attend a County Show. In the meantime, I must make do with this:

http://www.thefair.com/page.asp?view=23

The local Fair (The Puyallup Fair) is the fifth or sixth largest fair in the United States! I'd still like to go to an English County Fair, though. Also, we have never seen a flyby from a Spitfire--a plane my father flew whilst in the RAF during WWII.

My husband had sheared sheep when he was young. He has no desire to ever do it again!

Kingfisher

Well it was a lovely morning here... blue sky... warm sun, then it went dark and the thunder started - downpour!

It's cleared away for the time being, but suspect there will be more rain tomorrow as usual

This post was last modified: 17-07-2007 07:37 PM by Caz.

It's been lovely all day here. No sight of rain as yet. But I think its still raining alot at night because when I go to drive my car in the morning it always needs a bit of de-misting and a quick go with the window wipers.
Fingers crossed it will stay consistantly sunny soon!

Got soaked again yesterday (Wednesday)!

We were out as part of a volunteer countryside management project clearing away scrub and enjoying the sunshine. During a break we decided to have a look around the area we are managing. Because it was a lovely day we left our waterproofs at the site were we were working. Having waited until we were over the far side of the field, the weather made a dramatic change and the sun was replaced by a torrential downpour. It's at times like that that you realise that trees don't provide as much shelter as you would hope for

Got soaked again yesterday (Wednesday)!

We were out as part of a volunteer countryside management project clearing away scrub and enjoying the sunshine. During a break we decided to have a look around the area we are managing. Because it was a lovely day we left our waterproofs at the site were we were working. Having waited until we were over the far side of the field, the weather made a dramatic change and the sun was replaced by a torrential downpour. It's at times like that that you realise that trees don't provide as much shelter as you would hope for

I roared with laughter after reading your post. I know I have been out in the woods often enough in the rain to know that trees are quite porous (even though they will look bone dry!).

So, where were you clearing scrub? Did you see anything of note?

Kingfisher

We were on a lovely hillside just to the south of London, which is one of the rare chalk grassland sites that the project is trying to regenerate. Chalk grassland is almost unique to North Western Europe (of which the UK contains about half) and there is very little of it left, as over the past 40 years most of it has been lost. Because the soil is too poor for farming and often occurs on steep hillside it has been neglected and has quickly become overgrown. The hope is that we will clear enough of the scrub to enable grazing animals to be put on the land to help regenerate it.

Chalk grassland is important because it is rich in delicate plants (e.g. rare orchids) that cannot compete with the more aggressive plants that occur on richer soil. It is estimated that 1 square metre of chalk grassland can contain over 50 different types of plant. It is also the habitat for approx 40 of the country's 58 species of butterfly. We saw quite a few butterflies yesterday but the bad weather has kept most of them away. I'd love to list all the ones I saw but currently my knowledge of butterflies is on a par with my fluency in Japanese Hopefully, this will improve with time (butterfly recognition that is - there is no hope for my Japanese )

There's not much more enjoyable than rambling somewhere and stumbling onto an orchid. I've had the pleasure of doing that a few times here in the US (and of course, one can never tell anyone for fear that the orchids will be destroyed by people seeking to see them).

I don't suppose the US equivalent of the 'brush goat' would help clean up the scrub?

Kingfisher

A quick post to say that is is absolutely pouring here, thunder and lightning too. Apparently two months of rain is going to fall today, and if it keeps up like this I can believe it!

The project has a few British Feral goats (descended from the original domesticated native goats) which feed upon young scrub instead of grass. These sound like a version of the 'brush goat' that you mention. Mainly though we will be using hardy native sheep breeds and the local breed of cattle (Sussex).

All our roads were awash; it was like driving along a river bed. I don't think that I've ever seen such heavy prolonged rain.

If it makes anyone feel better, we are now indulging in our own pouring rain here in Puget Sound. I barely got home from work (on bicycle) before the skies opened.

Have you a photo of the Sussex Cattle? I don't think I've seen one.

Kingfisher

What no sun ?, Yes no sun..... still raining managed to drag lawn mower over the developing field the other day but now nearly as high as before.
We have military orchids here in the Croal irwell valley & therefore it has become a SSSI (Is that enough ss's? ). They are lovely mauve in colour.
When you talk about grassland , do you get Sheeps bit scabious? I seem to remember that but not where you find it.

This post was last modified: 20-07-2007 07:11 PM by tibbar.

I think that you might have 2 plants here. According to my wild flowers guide (just so that you don't think that I'm taking any credit for the following ): Sheep's Bit is part of the Bellflower family, while Scabious (e.g. Devil's bit, Field and Small) are part of the Teasel family). The various types of Scabious do appear on chalk grassland. Not sure about Sheep's Bit.

If anyone is interested in the flowers and changing face of chalk habitats look out for a book: Downland in Flower by W.N. Macleod who spent a year photographing his local Downs in Sussex.

Haven't got any pics of our cattle yet - will add when I do. However, Sussex are easily recognised by their rich red-brown colour. They are also very placid animals, so well suited to put on land where they are likely to come into contact with people.

The following link to the Waverly herd site gives some good pics and info on the breed:

http://freespace.virgin.net/lewis.goodha...sussex.htm