AUTUMN ALREADY?????

Tesco start their 'Back to School' promotions before the schools have even broken up for the summer hols. Must be heart breaking for kids to see it.

 

If it's Barley then no(around 19 july), but if it's wheat then yes (end of July/Aug), but it could be wheat which is being cut for animal feed which is cut before it's ripe ie; urea wheat, caustic wheat or wheat just being crimped

 

It's not autumn till the fat lady sings

 

The Damsons and Greengages are just about ready around here.

 

Its just an early season due to the mild winter and spring.
It as if we were a couple of hundred miles further south, that is all.
Its happened before and it will,
hopefully happen again.

Talk of an early Autumn is just rubbish, Autumn will come when the nights get cold.

 

Some years ago a summer heatwave caused all the fruit to ripen early and there wasn't a Blackberry left on the hedgerows by the time the school hols had finished, so nothing left by the time we were free to go out picking every day, shortening the picking season by 2 months. Same thing happened with our tomato crops that year.

If crops finish cropping early, rather than getting an extended season, it's worse than a normal year.

 

I'm not so sure Pete, as I'm typing I can see my neighbours trees opposite and a third of the leaves are already brown. Yes, we've had an unusually dry spring/summer here so lack of water probably accounts for that, but those leaves at present won't see autumn.

 

Magnolias (Asian) often flower again in summer, similar to wisteria, in good years, the American ones flower in summer normally.

The street trees around here seem to shed leaves all summer in most years, I think its mostly due to insect attack.

 

Apples are turning rosy (might not be the best example, but I was rather hot and bothered this afternoon).



And picked some more Blackberries - got 2 punnets today! When the picking builds up to more than we can eat, everything else will be used for winemaking.