Northernlights

As Quinach above similar weather here,sunshine definitely helping garden and had our first strawberries too. Neeps in the field liking the better weather too ,can almost see them up and down the field in their rows..

Another fine day to finish off takingin the bales.Warm sunny and breezy.Currently 18c Fine stack of silage for winter A few photos of young Mr .Northernlights taking in bales.

Great drying day today managed to secure lots of wrapped silage bales in more or less ideal conditions of sun and wind.. Young Mr Northernlights still driving bales home tonight. I also managed to finish sowing neeps in the damp areas of the field which are now easily passable. No wonder the ground got wet here the Met Office rainfall anomoly map for May shows my area had twice the monthly average for May and this mainly fell in the last two weeks Still having some great sunsets .This one shows the view to the NNW at about 10.00pm.

A bit more like June today with a south wind ,warmth and a moderate breeze.Picture from 4.15 am sunrise to the NE and a picture of sunset to the NW at 10.00pm. Sprayers everywhere today leaving great tracks in the cereal fields and silage trailers doing the same in grass fields.

Sunny and breezy today just great.But try walking through a field of crop and you realise how wet it has been and as for sowing the wet area in the neep field the water between the drills tells its own story the evening sunshine.

6c start to the day dull and drizzly.See Met office maps show we had twice the normal rainfall in my neck of the woods in May .June can"t be far behind.No wonder I am a grumpy old farmer just now.

Usually sow turnips at the end of May beginning of June and need dry weather for precision sower otherwise mud clogs the metering wheels..Can never remember such wet conditions in 50 years trying to sow them.90% sown in odd hours when rain stops to date.Parts of field still to wet to get tractor through. Frequent northerly winds for the last six weeks have done the damage here in an area which usually benefits from the rain shadow effect of the mountains to the south and west.According to the met office we have had twice the normal rainfall in May and June to date seems to be running at the same rate.

Yes very wet night now after a very drizzly day. Most of the veg in the garden are looking sorry for themslves apart from the cabbages/sprouts/cauliflower. Really needing some sun /dry weather now .for both plants and animals.Paying for those lovely days at the end of February.

Foul start to the day with a fresh NE wind , heavy drizzle and currently 8c so much more like winter than summer.

A really cool day sitting on a tractor sowing more neeps in between llght showers coming in off the Firth on a fresh Northerly wind. Some of them even looked wintry on the horizon. Ground conditions are rally sticky but time moving on so have to sow them. now A very wet block about 10% of the field will have to wait for a dryer spell or be put into faster growing stubble turnips in July. Have to say the old black cat hugging the rayburn has the right idea as it was really cold outside. Spaniel not so happy being bossed around by the cats but will get her turn when cats put out for the night. Currently 9.5c and overcast. Bird feeders being emptied on a daily basis too I think these have been the worst conditions at this time of the year for sowing swedes that I can remember. Very rare to be so continually wet in late May early June

Got back to sowing neeps this afternoon as sun came out and dried up the ground. Had to go round various wet bits where old tractor started to sink. Its very rare to have to miss anything because of saturated ground at this time of year. The other comment is that old tractor has a cab but with plenty of gaps .I was all dressed up in coats as its absolutely freezing for June. Ground became very damp this evening so had to stop.Stiil need another drying day to finish.Currently overcast and 11c

Dull dreich and drizzly here but forecast shows it brightening up here in the afternoon.Lets hope so as lack of dry weather and very little sunshine is begining to show in the garden and on the farm crops. Weeds are thriving though no point in dutch hoeing as its so wet so it looks like a hands and knees job to remove them in the next week. Currently 10c Thousands of acres of silage needing cut in the area. Crop spraying well behind too as machines get bogged down in fields. One contractor yesterday telling me he has 22 farms waiting for his sprayer. Admiittedly mostly smaller acreages but would still need a week of dry weather to complete. How I hate wet summers.

Right on the edge of a line of showers between the sea and the mountains so if we are very lucky we may get to sow some neeps again tomorrow as it appears so far that tomorrow shoud be dry above here. Curretly overcast and 15c so with no wind it does not feel cold.

Yes the Chernobyl drama was very good.Remember watching the ordinary cloud coming in from the east and hoping it wouldn"t rain but it did over western high ground areas so hill sheep were subject to restrictions for years. Mrs Northernlights was feeding Aurora Storm as a baby and hated drinking the UHT milk that we stocked up on for six months. ,Fine start to day although misty and currently12c.Ground still not dry enough to finish sowing neeps.

Went to Norway on our honeymoon in the early eighties, Agree that it is a very well run ,clean, beautiful country and perhaps being poor in the past made it appreciate its new found wealth in oil encouraging it to put a fair proportion away for the future. Got my snow fix in late July going up to some of the high mountain passes which are only just passable in summer. On the wealth side saw my first Sierra Cosworth parked outside our hotel.

Don"t often see this in June but we have a very autumnal sunset with ground hugging mist everywhere this evening

Very very wet again today and this evening it is trying to dry up. The ground is now very soft,replacing a few posts this evening and its very easy to punch new holes for the posts by hand quite the opposite of last summer. Thunder rumbling away to the south over the Cairngorms and not cold at 14c just now

Very wet again. Not to be too negative the fact that our crop was luckily sprayed a day before this wet spell started for weeds and trace elements (Mn Mg and Cu) means it is retaining a good strong green colour compared to our neighbours. So not all bad.Currently 9c

Managed to sow about half the neeps today.Ground very sticky and metering wheels have to scraped clear of mud every round.Other half of field has too many wet patches that tractors are sinking in so will have to be left for a while longer to dry out. My agronomist told me today that he feels like he is working for the Samaritans with every farmer he visits in this area complaining about ground too wet for silage machines and spring barley going yellow even on known dry areas.Said to him I think thats the legacy of ploughing bone dry ground last autumn which turned to talcum powder in the spring and then slumped after the wet spell. so all the soil structure has gone and can no longer support the barley roots.Whole fields are turning yellow now.. The best we can hope for is not too much rain tomorrow so we can work at the neep ground on Friday which is supposed to be dry here. Currently overcast ,13c and with an east wind

I think my perception of the three fine days stems from my childhood in the sixties especially when making hay (need two dry days in a row to bale hay when it is ready) )in late June and July where the prevailing wind from the SW gave us the protection of the mountains keeping us dry betwwen slower moving depression which were probably on a more northerly track. The frequency of Northerly sourced winds has increased in our more recent wet summers and therefore our area catches a lot of rain off the sea. Obviously more southerly tracking depressions are part of this. As an example of climate change I always refer to my college grassland lecturers(early 1970"s) who said that because of the almost certainty of drought in June in the Moray Firth area you always added Cocksfoot grass to a mixture as it was very drought reistant but produces very coarse feed in a wet year.Have reduced it in mixtures now but last summer proved its worth. Nairn has often been referred to as the Riviera of the north in the past because of its very dry climate but until last year it was losing thar title

Just put the below on a farming thread about the weather with reference to the very dry weather that UK has experienced this spring and which some areas in the south still are. "Very wet here again this morning only about two and a half weeks since the soil surface was talcum powder. Lots of silage needing cut in the area and in our own case swedes still to sow. This is a symptom of climate change where locked and blocked weather patterns take hold resulting in periods of extremely dry or wet patterns.One of the main reasons is a weak jetstream which is very meridional (wavy) caused by the reduction of the thermal gradient between the arctic and the equator which in turn has been increased by the lack of ice in the arctic. Opposite of the usual UK summer weather three fine days and a thunderstorm now three wet days and dry one in our area." Humid and breezy this afternoon,currently 19c.

Another very dreich day with constant light to moderate rain.A bit less cool. Currently 12c Fine day for doing VAT return and getting to grips with the new software for digital tax.Lot more detail required for every transaction so more typing required so increasing the time it takes to upload all the information. Add to this all the other paerwork needed on the farm and about 10% of your time is spent on administration. We are too small a buisness to employ a secretary

Another dreich damp miserable day. Made use of the dry day yesterday by getting fertliser on neep ground and cultivating some of it. I also cut all domestic grasses in the eveningt that haven"t been cut for two weeks now all wrapped up in winter gear as it was really cool. Finished at 10.00pm as first spits of rain arrived. Currently 9c

Lots of flies going round cattle this morning and humid a sure sign of rain. Would normally see a lot of swallows and sand martins swooping over the grass fields feeding on them but hardly any. Still only 3 swifts screeching around so my estimation of 70% less all round still holds. To me this lack of migrants is the saddest part of this spring..

Cold sunny start to the day at 1.5c with a ground frost. Looks like the only dry day of the week coming up. Farmers now complaining about the wet as lots of spraying to do ( timing related to crop growth stage important) and lots of silage to make both need dry overhead conditions at the minimum and dry leaf conditions if possible.