Dear Readers, it’s strange, but when I’ve got a trip coming up I always feel neither here nor there, as if I can’t really concentrate on anything. But a good remedy for that is a walk around St Pancras and Islington Cemetery – it’s one of the few places around here where you can really see the sky (which always reminds me of being in Africa, where the sky seems to go on forever). I was also curious to see how the place was holding up following the drought.

Well, the clay soil is cracking open in lots of places, and many of the paths, even the recently-laid tarmac ones, are full of  cracks. I’m guessing that trees will get the blame for much of the subsidence and heave in London, but actually it’s mostly down to the geology. In fact, taking trees out can make the soil rebound as there’s nothing to soak up the rain when it does come. But there we go. The only winners here are the insurance companies.

My favourite swamp cypress is doing very well, and is even producing seeds this year.

And many of the rose bushes also seem to have done very well, especially the native dog roses and many other species too. The hips will be much appreciated by the Redwings and Fieldfares when they get here shortly.

The grass is still looking very sad, but we’ve had a few showers over the last few days, and some patches are already greening up. I’ve noted before how resilient some of the native daisy plants are, and there are lots of examples of plants that, although smaller and more stunted than usual, have managed to produce flowers.

And where there’s been a little  bit of rain, the birds-foot trefoil has sprung into flower.

So, although the plants look a bit tired and sad, there’s still plenty of life here. There were lots of green woodpeckers yaffling too – I imagine digging for ants (their usual food) has been hard, but a bit of rain will loosen everything up. Talking of ants, I’ve had several incursions of the little chaps into the house when the summer was at its hottest, maybe scouting further afield because of the lack of food. But there’s a definite whiff of autumn in the air already, and the prematurely-fallen leaves are scrunching underfoot all through the cemetery. By the time I get back from South Africa, my thoughts will definitely be turning towards the end of the year.