The hot dry weather continues.  Here in Somerset, we’ve only had about five days with even a light shower of rain since Easter.  It’s been a relentless round of watering; not so difficult in the garden, but a real challenge down at the allotment.

This gravity fed system delivers a trickle of water to the tomatoes and courgettes, but the barrel has to be topped up manually.

The raised beds are filled with a mixture of leaf mould, shredded paper and soil imported from the Resilience Garden.  This is full of seeds from useful, fast growing annuals which are shading out the perennial weeds.   Borage, marigold and poppy can be seen in the picture; lower ground cover is supplied by scarlet pimpernel and blue speedwell.

These are easy to pull up, and good to compost, unlike the bindweed, horsetail (outwitting vertebrates since the Triassic) and couch grasses they replace.  Most of the weeds have to go to landfill just now, which deprives this poor soil of even more nutrients.

We took some time out to go to the Scythe Fair in June.  Adventurous visitors could sail down the River Parrret and catch the horse drawn bus to site!

Most people came by car though, and this is finally becoming a problem.  It’s a wonderful event and its popularity means that some formalities will have to be put in place.  Perhaps it will lose some of its rustic charm…

….or perhaps not.  Suppose it was possible to close the whole lane for a day, so visitors had to leave their cars (in a convenient field) and walk or cycle to the event?   The locals would need to go along with the plan too, and not use their cars for a day.

The management felt that was too radical a concept – and I agree.  It’s a shame that everyone is so attached to their cars!

I’m just about to set off on another adventure, spreading the Resilience word …more when I return!