Approaching weather front

Today was certainly a scorcher, reaching 30C by late afternoon. I spent much of the day surveying a flood storage reservoir for the Environment Agency. The wetland area was fairly dull, but the surrounding banks supported species-rich grassland , potentially of sufficient interest to merit notifying the area as  County Wildlife Site. Thankfully there were also plenty of trees on the site so I was able to retreat to shady spots when the heat became too unbearable.

I felt pretty exhausted by the time I arrived home about half past three. Pete had spent the day writing, and Alex had done a garden, so none of us felt much like slaving over a hot stove. We succumbed to ordering an Indian take-away and ate it in the garden as the sun went down. The bands of high cirrus clouds heralded the approach of a front, and produced some good penumbral rays. 

We stayed outside until it was fully dark, watching the various familiar late summer stars appear in the sky - Arcturus, the Summer Triangle consisting of Vega, Altair and Deneb, and then The Plough and Cassiopea. There have been so very few nights when it's been warm enough to linger outside, and I've hardly seen any stars this summer, as the east has been shrouded in grey cloud for so much of the time.