04/07/2026
Spotted: Hockley Heath St Thomas, Hockley Heath
Nature Notes from Nuthurst Lane
July 2026 by June Hemming
I think nature notes for the last four or five times have begun with some
adverse reference to the weather such as “raining yet again, or Nice but a
very cold wind” or “the wettest month since October etc”. Little did I know that
this month I might ask how it feels like to be a grease spot. Strangely if I look
back over previous months of June it often appears to be one of the wettest
months of the year. It is early days yet so anything might happen.
Then what about the big storm on Thursday? Quite a curtain raiser
wasn’t it? I went to bed before 10pm feeling hot and sticky and thinking I
wasn’t going to get much sleep, about then I must have dropped off quickly
but something woke me at about 12.30 am which is not unusual when I go to
bed early. I thought a car passing by had lit the bedroom up but then realised
having gone to the bathroom, that it was lightning, I hadn’t heard any thunder
at this stage. I returned to bed and back to sleep again until 3.15am when
Maisie arrived on my bed obviously disturbed and frightened by the thunder. I
reluctantly let her out (by now I could hear the rain). She quite obviously
needed to go out but returned very quickly. She jumped on my bed and
quickly made herself a nest by my feet and legs where she felt secure but
would never have done this normally. When I woke again at about 4am I was
surprised that the storm was still rumbling on and Maisie was still asleep and
not going anywhere. I think that storm must have lasted the best part of four
hour and it had given us the best of 10mm of rain which took the grand total
for May to 46mm and was very much needed.
Now the weather forecaster made little of it the night before – perhaps
we might just get the odd rumble of thunder up and down the country and did
just cover herself the next evening by saying it was difficult to forecast storms
of that nature
I usually write these notes early in the morning but today it is the other end of
the day and about 9pm in the evening .I went into the kitchen to make a drink
and there in front of my eyes was a lovely deer stalking across the field right
in front of me. I felt sure she must have been aware of me as I had the light
on but she had her head held high and didn’t seem perturbed. I think she was
sniffing the air for her mates who may have been in the vicinity perhaps? She
stood alongside the hedge for sometime and I didn’t actually see her go but
as it got more dusk I suppose she merged into the background.
I do hope this hot, dry spell doesn’t spoil all the things that are looking
so lovely in our gardens and hedgerows at the moment. One of the nicest
things in my garden at present is a lovely pink Peony called “Bowl of Beauty”
which has been there for a number of years and is just opening up its lovely
buds, at least thirty, I should think. June is its flowering time so it either gets a
hot dry spell which means it is over quickly or a wet June when it is blown
about and spoilt by rain. In the hedges are two of my favourites, the Dog
Rose and Honeysuckle. There are some super do Roses this year, always
looking as if they have been arranged like a bride’s bouquet and what smells
sweeter than Honeysuckle on a warm, humid evening and plenty of birdsong
in the background.
Bliss!!
