July sunshine and showers… but mostly showers

July has been a pretty wet month this year. It’s not rained all the time here but it has rained a lot… we’ve had showers most days. The hedgerows, gardens and haugh are green and growing like the crazy. Rosebay willowherb and meadowsweet are flowering in the hedgerows and there’s been lots of wild raspberrries to snack on. There are loads of delicate blue harebells in flower everywhere now… it seems to be a good year for them.

The swifts don’t seem to mind the rain, and we often here them screaming overhead in the evenings, and a pair of brilliant-white egrets are back by the river. I caught a glimpse of a kingfisher earlier in the month for about a nanosecond as it zoomed past.

The Kelso Laddie Ride to Yetholm took place on 22 July. It rained pretty solidly throughout most of it, but there was a great turn-out anyway and much eating, drinking and general merrymaking on the village greens.

Harvesting has started now, though the farmers are having to stop and start due to all the rain. Hopefully there will be enough fine days in August to get the rest of the crops in.