Monday 16th August.

A change in the weather: much cooler and therefore more liveable for the dogs. Archie has gone for his midday rest and I've begun another week of this: BAE and a chapter, a fresh orange juice and a chapter and then back for lunch? Three weeks left of this long summer in Wetherby? With the breeze comes another form of reprieve. Perhaps the cycles of heatwaves is over? But I think it'll be back at the end of August I predict...

To get out of Wetherby! Wow. I forgot how much I like my own bed. The flat might be in an awful, messy section of the carbuncle which is Leeds, West Yorkshire, but it's my 'home'; being here for 5 years come October... Means something.

Just to have a coffee around dawn as the sun rises in the east and I overlook the surrounding area... Now it's time to bathe and head back to Wetherby for a few more days... If the weather 'improves', ie gets cooler and wetter, then the dogs and I can do other stuff?

No rain. Plenty of grey clouds and a breeze, but no rain. The field behind the house I am dog sitting in is sandy brown and none of the dandelions have any heads on them. I have never seen no flowers in Sandringham Park. No daisy's, no buttercups or dandelions, but there is a vast quantity of blackberries - more than it's possible to pick - which are turning too ripe and being left uneaten...

This morning I ventured with Lola on to the allotment to water everything, again. A hose pipe ban is coming into effect at the end of August if the situation doesn't change...I am praying this evening I smell ozone and see rivlets pouring down the pane.

The harvest appears to be steaming on with grain and bales heading south on The Great North Road - I don't know where they are going with it as I can't picture a silo or barn large enough anywhere on the other side of the River Wharfe, after the roundabout onto the old A1(now the A168).