Good job there are still plenty of weeks to go for summer, still time for the weather to pick up. Someone said to me this week that the long range forecast said that we are in for more of the same over the next month, so watch out for the heat-wave. There is not much we can do about the weather so no point getting too stressed out but it is affecting a lot of sectors in horticulture so don’t forget to keep supporting everyone. The soft fruit boys and girls are having huge quality problems with all the wind and rain and as usual getting little sympathy from the supermarkets but we need to keep buying their stuff or they will be in even more trouble. Make the most of purchases by eating ASAP before the quality takes a dive then pop in later in the week for another punnet. English raspberries in store now, my favourite, best eaten with cold dark chocolate, all part of my 5 a day.

Another tour party this week with a local farmers group of 50 or so for a quick look at the nursery, lab and turbines. As our weeny wind installation is still the biggest in Hampshire the novelty is yet to wear off. Followed up the tour with a hog roast BBQ on the farm, contributing nothing to my 5 a day but satisfying the meat consuming hunter in me.

Big news in the local paper last week with a plan proposed to put up 17 big turbines fairly locally, the usual fuss and panic was reported in the blurb, although during the week the overall reaction seems surprisingly positive which is nice to see. The usual knee jerk reactions where there with questions about whether the turbines would ever save enough CO2 to cover their own manufacture (ours will in just 15 months use) and when electric demand is at its highest the wind doesn’t blow (assuming the highest demand is when we have a frosty, still, high pressure system parked on top of us). Having come through our first winter and been involved in TRIAD charges which are applied to high users and generators for the 3 peak half hour consumption periods of the winter, I was pleasantly surprised to see that we generated at high rates on all three occasions with just 3kWhr consumed where our own use was slightly higher than power we generated for one of the periods. I am guessing that this is because the highest demand (always between 16.30 and 18.30 on a cold winters evening) is not just when it is cold but windy and possibly wet too. A cold wet wind will remove heat from buildings much quicker than cold alone. I must try and squeeze in a few more tours for the locals so they can get up close and personal and look at the turbines too!

Feeling very sorry for the Isle of Wight festival goers this weekend, having taken so long to get them on site, it is likely to take forever to get them off again as it has been raining again overnight. They are going to be cold, wet and very tired but hopefully having enjoyed some good times. We did our more civilised bit by attending the opening of the King Somborne music and beer festival on Friday night in the village hall. Organised by the ‘Somborne Sessions’ we have a brilliant night watching Virgil and the Accelerators who were fantastic and very loud. I bet they don’t get many gigs where members of the audience are waltzing around the floor to raucous blues rock. Had a quiet day yesterday recovering from the beer sampling of the night before, feeling nearly human today.

Caroline feeling a bit less encumbered now as her arm cast came off this week, but she is still a bit crocked as it will take a while for things to settle down and work properly again. I think there was an expectation that all would be normal when the cast came off but she still can’t get her socks on. Good job, touch wood, my back is ok otherwise we would both be naked from the ankle down! Could be worse.

Eco News

Windy week, already 25% up on June estimate with 7 days to go.

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