Hot drift...

Summer has arrived with a vengeance - over 24C by 9am and rising to 28.5C this afternoon - and humid too! I took the dogs for a relatively early riverside walk, which was cosy but not too uncomfortable, though Gemma would really have liked to just stand in the river - and who can blame her?

The flooding has finally dried up, and I was able to walk my usual route, which was brightened up by drifts of flowering purple loosestrife, great willowherb, angelica and meadowsweet, perfuming the air wonderfully. I was thrilled to see a musk beetle towards the town end of the site, busy feeding on angelica again. I've always known that they must be living in the pollard willows, but have waited over twenty years to actually see one!

Just after 10 Chris and I headed to Swayfiedl Drift in Lincolnshire to check out an old record of a rare plant, smooth cat's-ear. We didn't find it, but had an interesting if rather sweltering walk, and found some rather fine quality limestone grassland, with a huge population of meadow scabious, as well as much burnet saxifrage, common knapweed and salad burnet, all growing amongst the yellowish-green tor grass and upright brome.This right of way gets the name 'Drift' from its former use for driving cattle - in the fens such routes are usually known as 'Droves'.

Off to the Wash tomorrow to hunt for another rare plant. I just hope there are some sea breezes to take the edge of the temperature, which is predicted to be even higher...