Although (sadly) nights are drawing in, this has been tempered by the fact that the nights have been much warmer and some lovely summer evenings have been had this month (July). Plus it is still light until almost 10 pm. The horses have been enjoying the warmth of the latter end of the day.

In fact it is mainly about the horses this week. Many people assume that horse shelters are there to protect them from the rain but, actually, heavy rain aside, they spend more time inside protecting themselves from the sun. A couple of lovely days this week have demonstrated that as with the picture below.

At least Tom has let Flash inside this time – he is not always so generous, sometimes standing right in the doorway so the little fellow can’t get in!! At other times they can be very gentle with each other – witness a bit of mutual grooming going on below. Thanks to Clare for this photo.

Going back to the seasonal evenings, there are some lovely skies contrasting with the newly “brown” field next door as it awaits ploughing to start. This picture was taken about 9.30 pm one night so the “dark” clouds are actually just white fluffy ones looking more menacing as the sun fades.

Finally, the House Martins are, of course, still around. There have been a few more babies produced and some are still being fed by their parents but, by and large, the youngsters are out of the nest and fending for themselves. One problem is the fact that they don’t always realise when they are too big to return to the nest, resulting in a number of nest collapses such as the one below. Not sure how much power this particular solar panel is generating right now 🙂