Cold and clear

Tuesday morning gave us our coldest morning of summer (June – August) with the temperature dropping to 4.6°C overnight. On the plus side Tuesday has started with clear blue skies and the temperature rising quickly after such a cold start.

Monday was an okay sort of a day for August. Not particularly warm but no rain and some decent spells of sunshine. It was the day we picked Mr Ugly a tomato variety called Costoluto Fiorentino which I suspect you won’t find on your local supermarket shelves.

From 03 Weather 2010

Windy

Bank Holiday Sunday had some sunny spells but it was very windy all day for the second day in a row. The wind took the edge of the temperature and it felt cool all day. The morning had started with a few drizzly spells, just another day with rainfall to add to this rather miserable August’s weather.

I look to have lost control again this year of our greenhouse grape vine which has escaped through the window and scrambled up into our Conference pear tree.

From 03 Weather 2010

End of summer?

Saturday was pretty unpleasant for August with a strong cool westerly wind blowing all day. It’s unlikely that the average daily temperature for August will change much from now until the end of the month. Temperatures are about 1°C cooler than last year and around 2°C cooler than the expected average. We’ve had some rainfall on 17 days so far this month. In all it’s been a poor August weather wise.

The lack of sunshine hasn’t stopped our sunflowers putting on a good display on the plot.

From 03 Weather 2010

Grape Picking

Friday was back to more like August weather although it was chilly again overnight.

In the greenhouse our grapes are ready for picking. After a few testers the seedless white grapes are now super sweet and ready to eat.

From 03 Weather 2010

The variety is White Himrod Seedless

Consistently Inconsistent

It’s strange weather for August, and one thing seems certain a poor day will follow a good day. Thursday was no exception and following a nice day on Wednesday, Thursday was thoroughly miserable. It was dull, cool and cloudy all day with spits and spots of rain from time to time.

At long last our tomatoes are starting to ripen in some numbers, mostly Tumbling Tom Red a cherry variety. I think I’ll need a good green tomato chutney recipe by the end of September.

From 03 Weather 2010

Summer for a day

Wednesday was cold overnight, down to single figures, but with sunshine from early morning it soon warmed to give us something more like August. I don’t suppose it will last.

On the plot our greengages suffered from a late frost meaning we have very little fruit this year. A good search amongst the leaves and I found this little greengage just ready to pick and eat.

From 03 Weather 2010

Just to make me wrong

I had no sooner finished yesterday’s blog when we had a heavy downpour. It continued to rain most of the morning but not too heavily and didn’t clear away until late afternoon when it brightened up and we had some sunshine. It was a cool day, autumn definitely seems to be on the way and the forecast for the bank holiday is not so good.

From 03 Weather 2010

Click here to read full article

Lucky us!

We were fortunate enough to miss the torrential downpours that struck much of Britain on Monday. We had a reasonable morning with a little sunshine followed by a wet afternoon. As usual not a lot of rain but just enough to make it damp and miserable. So far this month we’ve had some amount of rain on 15 out of 24 days. It’s still amounted to about the average rainfall for the month at the moment. It has been good for the plot keeping it looking green and lush in parts.

From 03 Weather 2010

Harvesting & planting

Sunday was another pleasant sunny day just right for planting out some more lettuces on the plot but a little warm for lifting potatoes. The lettuces are summer varieties so it might just be a little bit late in the season for them but nothing ventured nothing gained. The potatoes are Nadine and they have produced a pretty good crop of potatoes despite the dry weather.

From 03 Weather 2010

Harvest time

Friday’s strong wing didn’t do too much damage on our plot. Runner beans, sweet corn and dahlias all withstood the battering but our cardoon was spoilt although not smashed to the ground as has happened before in windy weather.

From 03 Weather 2010

Saturday turned out to be another warm day with lighter winds and plenty of sunny periods.

There was plenty to harvest on the plot this weekend.

From 03 Weather 2010

The weather has certainly delayed some crops. We cut our first dahlia flowers today, weeks later than we would expect. What few Victoria plums we have are just about ready to pick which is more or less the usual time.

A walk around Newmillerdam

It’s just a few miles from where we’ve lived for 30 years but I have never visited before. I’ve passed by many times and often thought the water in the dam looked higher than the road. This week all that changed and we had a stroll around the dam. Not a long walk but pleasant considering how close we were to Wakefield City Centre.

View Larger Map

Friday’s weather was most peculiar, turning out to be the warmest day of the month (24.8°C), very muggy though with not much sunshine. There were plenty of dark clouds about all day with the ever present threat of a thunderstorm. It was windy all day too which seemed odd given how muggy the day felt. Just to finish off the day it rained on and off from 18:00.

From 03 Weather 2010

It seemed very cloudy all day although my weather station calculated that we had 4 hours of sunshine.

Sunny day

Thursday was a mirror image of yesterday, a pleasant warm sunny day until late afternoon when the clouds rolled in and the damp, showery weather we’ve become used to this month returned. The picture blow shows Newmillerdam yesterday afternoon as the clouds started to take over.

From 03 Weather 2010

What’s happened to summer!

Wednesday turned out to be a rather cool day for August. It was cloudy for most of the day but brightened up around 16:00 to give us a sunny end to the day.

The poor weather already gives an autumnal feel to the days. I lifted my potatoes “Juliette” this week and as more of the plot is cleared this adds to the autumnal feel.

From 03 Weather 2010

Couldn’t last

Tuesday was back to normal for August this year. A little overnight rain and a cloudy morning were followed by brief sunny intervals in the afternoon. Temperature wise it was quite pleasant. This was typical of the cloud cover at 14:15

From 03 Weather 2010

Messing about by the canal

Monday was without doubt the best day of the month so far. The afternoon temperature reached a high of 23.8°C the highest of the month. Clear blue skies virtually all day. We decided to visit the RSPB reserve at Fairburn Ings where after a walk through the nature reserve we rather surprisingly found ourselves by the canal at Bulholme Lock (Castleford) which was busy with both pleasure and commercial barges.

Bulholme Lock - Aire & Calder Navigation

Best of the month

Out of the blue Sunday produced the best day of the month. The temperature reached 22.6°C pipping the previous highest on 2nd August by just 0.1°C. Seven hours of sunshine is the best for the month too. Our crab apples “John Downie” are starting to turn in the brighter weather.

From 03 Weather 2010

Improving picture

Saturday didn’t get off to a promising start. Overnight rain continued into the early part of the morning but soon cleared away leaving a rather dull morning. The afternoon brought a big improvement with the sun making an appearance and the clouds breaking up. A bit more like summer!

From 03 Weather 2010

Just not summer!

Friday wasn’t much like summer at all. Dull, cool and wet all day, it produced our dullest day since the 9th June. Although it seemed wet all day only 1.8mm of rain fell, not sure how such a small amount made for a completely wet day.

The last time we visited the plot we picked our first tomato from the greenhouse. The variety is “Yellow Perfection” usually a reasonably sized tomato but with this year’s poor crop it was more a large cherry size. For the full story of this year’s somewhat unsuccessful tomato crop click here.

From 02 Weather 2010

More heavy showers

We weren’t so lucky on Thursday to miss the heavy showers that were about. Again we had a few sunny periods but yet another rather poor day for August.

Our apples on the plot are progressing nicely and these “Discovery” apples should soon be ready to pick. We are hoping that our codling moth trap used for the first time this year will reduce the damage to our crop from this pest.

From 02 Weather 2010

The weather seems to suit cucumbers

Clear blue sky at 08:00 but by 09:00 the clouds were rolling in. The pattern, now well established continued for the rest of the day. It was a breezy day with a gusty westerly wind all day.

Our outdoor cucumber “Burpless Tasty Green” is now producing plenty of cucumbers. Just need some tomatoes to start ripening.

From 02 Weather 2010

A flower!

Our first dahlia flower is out, well almost. Last year we picked our first bunch of dahlias on the 5th July and this year we have our first and so far only flower on 10th August.

From 02 Weather 2010

As for the weather on Tuesday the pattern of disappointing August weather continued although we avoided any showers that were around. The temperature continued below normal for August.

Bright start

Monday started off bright and sunny but of course it didn’t last and the afternoon clouded over and cooled off. The day’s maximum temperature of 21.9°C was at 11:30. There were just a few traces of rain during the afternoon.

This is the first year I’ve tried a summer broccoli. It’s just starting to produce spears, the variety is Summer Purple.

From 02 Weather 2010

Long wait

It took a long time for Sunday to brighten up. We decided to visit the plot after lunch and it looked like we might get another soaking. By late afternoon the clouds broke and we had a beautiful late afternoon and evening.

It’s a long wait for our dahlias to flower this year. We’re still waiting for our first flower to open. Last year at this time we had more than enough flowers to supply a florist. This year so far nothing, the top picture is early August last year and the lower this year!

From 02 Weather 2010

Disappointing start

Saturday continued the recent trend of showers and rather cool weather. The first week of August has been a disappointing affair with just 2 days without showers. With little amounts of sunshine temperatures remain around 2°C below normal.

I’ve had a struggle with tomatoes for a variety of possible reasons this year but at last some are now beginning to ripen.

From 02 Weather 2010

Cool start

It was a cool start to Friday with the overnight low down to 8.2°C. A little bit of sunshine to start the day, was soon replaced by cloud like most days at the moment. In the afternoon we were busy on the plot as a particularly heavy shower arrived sending us scurrying for cover in our shed.

Improvement on yesterday

Thursday saw an improvement in the weather. Well it was drier but still fairly cloudy but with some better sunny spells. I know my weather station shows 6 hours of sunshine but until I started trying to record it I had never thought how difficult it was to measure actual hours of sunshine. In some respects it’s better to think of it as 6 hours of brighter weather rather than intense sunshine.

I made some al fresco piccalilli in the morning as boiling vinegar in an enclosed space brings tears to my eyes. Of course it decided to rain in the middle of my outdoor cooking just like in the best "Hairy Biker/Baker” cooking programmes! The recipe can be found on our web site by clicking here

From 02 Weather 2010

Ditto – but wet

Wednesday started with a spell of rain in the morning. This was followed by some heavy showers during the day. It wasn’t particularly warm for August with temperatures below normal for the time of year. At least the sunflowers are putting on a good show.

From 02 Weather 2010

Ditto

Well the rut continues! Tuesday was a dull morning then a little bit of sunshine in the afternoon. I suppose though it’s good weather for lifting potatoes not too hot and sticky. Chance would be a fine thing.

From 02 Weather 2010

The ground where the potatoes were lifting was dry and dug in large clods of earth. I’ll leave the winter weather to break down the soil for next spring.

From 02 Weather 2010

In a rut

Just more of the same for Monday. A little bit of sun mid afternoon was our lot for the day. Then shortly after the sun a brief heavy shower.

Our winter brassicas are not doing too badly on the plot. After all the rain in July they were dry and needed some water.

From 02 Weather 2010

Same again

Sunday continued in the pattern that now seems well established. Far more cloud than blue sky and any sunshine appears through thin cloud rather than clear blue sky. We had just a drop of early morning rain.

On the plot I lifted some Charlotte salad potatoes as the tops were drying and turning brown. This lot left to dry for a couple of hours before being boxed up for storage weighed in at 27kg.

From 02 Weather 2010

I think it’s easier to dig up potatoes if you can see enough foliage to see exactly where the root is. Pleased with the crop given that it’s been very dry. Very little slug damage to any of the tubers which is probably a benefit of the dry weather.

Cloudy

Saturday was another cloudy day with little brightness until late afternoon. A disappointing end to July which had started with some superb weather. The highs and lows together with July’s rainfall are shown below.

From 02 Weather 2010