Summer here at last?

It's been a lovely summer's day here, hope it happened for the rest of you.
Got sunburnt and saw kingfishers this morning.
Had a good view of a serotine bat this evening.
Found four eggs in the spotted flycatchers' nest in my garden arch.
Sat in the garden at half past midnight, still warm enough for just a Tshirt. This is how summer should be!

Hey Philomel, got romm for visitors? it was miserable here, sea mist I think, once the sun peeped out,giving just a hint of what's up there, then vanished. I couldn't believe it when they said on the weather that it had been the hottest day ! Sun is sort of out at the moment, it's just coming up to 9a.m, so I've got my shorts on in hopes :-)I believe you're expecting thunder storms today.Lucky you with your birds, I just have the common old sort here, but no less fun to watch them feeding.I've never seen a kingfisher, do you live near a river?
We do have bats, not sure what sort, but they fly up and down my garden in the evening, me and my daughter love to watch them .we found one in the house once, tiny little thing, I nearly trod on it!Tried to get hold of the R.S.P.C.A. to see what I should do with it, (that was a job and a half, they make it look so easy on Animal Rescue)they referred me to a local 'batman',who was in the pub when I phoned, so we took it out, in the dark to put it in the greenhouse, and promptly dropped it somewhere, we never did find it again, hope it survived.

You were right with the thunderstorms Sue. Didn't hear a forecast and was out early checking dormouse boxes when i was aware how dark it had got - like midnight almost - and i could hear ominous rumblings all round. Almost overhead by the time the rain started but, boy, did it come down. Just as well, as my mum says "I'm not made of sugar" LOL

I'm lucky to work in the countryside a lot and saw the kingfishers while doing an assessment for a bat survey at an old ruined moated castle an hour's drive from me. I've always been really sorry that i live in part of Kent that has no overground rivers - the water goes down through the chalk. I really miss it as i was born in Chester and loved walking by the River Dee, though you had to watch out for the cow pats!

Yes, we bat workers are elusive people. English Nature should have a contact number for your county bat group, but as we're all volunteers for this sort of thing, it's difficult to have easy links. (If that makes sense hmmm)

Hope you've had the last laugh and your share of the sunshine today, and have been able to keep the shorts on.

yeah, it's been fabulous here today, sat on my hammock, about the second time this year !!Then decided that the pond needed a sort out,(the hammock is on a deck which hangs over the pond)so spent this afternoon slushing around in slimey sludgey smelly water, but at least the fish can swim around again, they were almost leaping for joy, or maybe it was the food they were leaping for.:-)
Why is it that as a gardener it's hard to just sit and enjoy the garden, without seeing things that need doing?I have M.E. and part of my treatment is that I'm supposed to have 4 x1/2 hour rest periods in which I lie down and do nothing, think of nothing, and just generally contemplate my navel. Well, of course I spend those half hours eyes roming around looking for what needs doing next.Jobs that I can't manage, I make a mental list for Hubby to do, so of course he's well chuffed, especially as he hates gardening of all sorts ,heee hee.
Your job sounds fab, is it voluntary?I love the country-side, hate cities and big towns and crowds.
The best holidays we had were walking hols when the other kids were younger, we used to go camping all over ,and walking ,and funnily I was talking on the phone to one of my daughters today, and she's trying to persude her boyfriend that that's the sort of hol he'd like, she said that she used to really enjoy those hols.Miles out in the country ,or up mountains, no-one else there for miles, just the sound of the birds,( until of course the kids used to start asking if they could eat lunch yet!)Hope you didn't dissolve too quickly in the rain :-)

It cleared up here this afternoon Sue. Was really good to get out in the garden on a day i didn't think i'd be able to and tackle loads of weeds - still plenty left mind.

Sorry to hear of your ME. Must be difficult to work round, but you always sound so busy and hatching some scheme or other. That's the lovely thing about gardening, it's never finished, there's always something to be done and little pleasures that pop up when you're not expecting them.

I do a lot of voluntary work, but also do some consultancy work, usually connected to development schemes and mitigation for wildlife. I have bat and dormouse handling licences and do consultancy on behalf of the Kent Bat and Mammal Groups, so they benefit too. I just love being outdoors (says she sitting in front of a computer, lol)

Thanks Philomel, I've lived with it for 15 years, so I'm pretty used to it by now,and keep reminding myself that there are worse things to have. Your job sounds great, I wish that I'd had an outdoors job, I hate being trussed up inside, especially in nice weather, guess what it's sunny again! 2 days in a row, going to take some photos today for my plant album.
why do the weeds grow much faster than the plants? and why don't slugs and snails eat them? I've just been wandering around my little veggie plot, looking to see what needs doing,weeding being the most desperate.Mick's bought me a little stool that I sit on while I do it, except that if one leg sinks in the soil it suddenly flips over and flings me on the ground, very amusing for my neighbours though, I'm sure thay think I'm mad anyway :-)
hope weathers nice for you today, have a good day.
Sue

Blinkin' hot today, went for my daily trek across the forest (both Bo and I need to lose a few ... ummm ... stones). Watched some surprisingly large, dark emerald damselflies dancing over a small stream. Bo must have thought I was looking for a way across the stream because he was staring at me, pointing over a high spot on the gravel bed LOL.

ME is a dreadful thing to cope with Sue but it sounds as if you have it all worked out by now :) I did have a laugh about the stool tipping over!

Philomel, Mother tells me there are kingfishers by the river near her home although I've not seen them. You work sounds very interesting, I've never seen a dormouse in the flesh although there are supposed to be populations around here somewhere.