It’s not been a great summer. This week, the middle of August, there have been two days of rain. Welcome enough to keep gardens watered, of course, but a pain when there is weeding and mowing to be done. I am hoping that the late summer and autumn might redeem the year and give us a last blaze of glorious sunshine and colour before the year fades away. 

Autumn is already on the march, though. Swifts disappeared more or less overnight – as they always do, seemingly on a shrieked command of ‘Go’ – in the first week of August. My last sighting was on 11th August in the middle of Salisbury. By the same token, I was watching a House Martin still busily feeding its chicks – a second brood I presume – this morning, while other Martins and Swallows hawked for insects over the riverside meadows and enjoyed the humid conditions.