Wet

Dallas: I haven't seen anything like that except, uh, molecular acid.
Brett: It must be using it for blood.
Parker: It's got a wonderful defense mechanism. You don't dare kill it.

I had no idea what this is - did I plant this?! I looked it up. According to Wiki it "produces ellagic, gallic and pyrogallic acids and (+)-catechin, allelopathic polyphenols". I have a degree in a bioscience; I have nooo idea what that means - 'pyrogallic' sounds really bad - but Wiki also says it's "inhibiting the growth of blue-green alga" and I know they are bad, so I guess it's a friend after all. I do wonder if all those acids might have also frightened away the crustaceans that were eating the green (not blue-green!) algae, though. Hope not 

It's Eurasian watermilfoil, native to, well, Eurasia, including UK. The wildlife trusts say "It provides shelter for many aquatic creatures and emergent stems offer places for dragonflies and damselflies to alight and lay their eggs". Let's not run before we can walk. I should add it's considered an invasive nuisance in US

I woke at 3am to flashes of lightning, rumbling thunder and heavy, driving rain. The village is hosting its annual music festival this weekend. After my week in the Hebrides, I have empathy for the campers! Heavy rain showers characterised a lot of the day, giving way to some intervals of blinding sunshine in the afternoon. The heat of the sun was enough to evaporate water from the ground faster than the rain-cooled air could absorb it - not just on the tarmac, as often happens, but over grass - so steam was rising from the ground quite dramatically. Just normal British summer

Longing momentarily for more classic, languid summer days, I looked up the long term forecast. As a statement of guarded optimism it is a masterpiece: "There are some signs of a slightly greater than normal chance of a prolonged settled spell developing at some point, at least for a time, and perhaps more likely in the south". No risk to watermilfoil