Phew! What a scorcher!

We are in the dog days of June and, unusually for Manchester, we have had more than one day of sunshine already this year. The garden is blooming and our fifteen year old tuxedo cat, Amy, is spending most of her waking hours under a small Japanese maple, shaded from the blazing sun (when she is not asking for munchies, of course!)

At the bottom of the garden, between an Escallonia and a ‘Red Robin’ Photinia, we have a bird feeder. Now, the weather was so hot this afternoon, that the normally hyperactive squirrels, who constantly raid the feeder, were nowhere to be seen; only appearing once the sun had dipped below the horizon, then proceeding to showcase there acrobatic prowess, half emptying the seeds, nuts and dried mealy worms onto the grass below within seconds.

Most evenings, in dry weather, I stand in the garden watching for the tiny pipistrelle bat that darts around catching its evening meal of unsuspecting moths and gnats. But this evening, I must have missed the spectacle.

Of course, this weather brings high pollen counts. With the sunshine expected to last until the weekend, anti-histamines keep the worst of the hay-fever symptoms away.

I’m hoping to share some updates about The Connickle Conundrum before the end of June.

In the meantime, it’s back to plotting the second book in the trilogy.