In April 2023 I featured a photograph of Ely Cathedral in my blog, an image that I found whilst doing a Google search. Last week I received an email from Alamy, a stock photography company, that informed me that I had infringed copyright laws by using the photograph without purchasing a license from them. Had I have bought a licence it would have set me back around £35. Because I didn’t, they have sent me an invoice for £500! Now I’m not looking for sympathy or donations, it was my error and it is a harsh lesson learned. The reason for informing you of this is for it to act as a cautionary tale. Just because you can Google an image of virtually anything, and the fact that it is very easily downloadable, doesn’t mean that it is free to use – as I have found to my considerable cost. So please be careful if you have any kind of online presence in which you share images, don’t fall into the trap that I have. Henceforward there are likely to be fewer photographs in my blogs, because I will mostly only be using shots taken by me. There are royalty–free stock images to be found on the internet, so look those up if you need to use any – or pay the price!

Well so far August has helped to redeem what has otherwise been a very mediocre summer, at least it has in this part of the country. And tomorrow is going to be a scorcher, with a temperature forecast to hit 32 or 33 degrees. That’s why I am planning to have most of the day off. I will go in early, do some watering, harvest everything that needs to be gathered in, then retire to a cool place. And that place is the river Stour. I have booked some kayaks, and plan to have a gentle paddle on the water, and if I get too hot I might even have a dip in the water if it isn’t too murky. And then a pub lunch. Sounds good doesn’t it? I will then go back to Moyns Park later in the day to give everything a good drink.

Dylan’s dad Tony used to work on the stud farm on the estate and lived in one of the cottages that overlooks my garden. Very sadly Tony died suddenly in November of 2022. Dylan spent most weekends and holidays with his dad and loved to help him mucking out the horses and generally assisting with whatever needed to be done. He also used to pop in to see me regularly to offer his services in the garden. This he did from a very young age – he was only about 7 years of age when Tony started working with the horses. Dylan is now 15 and has a deep voice, and is soon to go into his last year at school. On Wednesday of last week, following some messaging between us, I went to collect Dylan from his home and took him for an afternoon at Moyns Park. it was his first time back since the loss of his dad and he was very excited (in a moody teenager kind of way) to be back at the place where he enjoyed being most of all. He loved seeing familiar haunts and meeting up with the farm manager Alan, Tony’s neighbour and friend. Dylan’s great hope is to work on a farm post-school, and will be coming back to spend time in the tractor with Alan when the wheat harvest gets under way very soon, to gain some experience and to spend time in his happy place, and to be amongst friends.

There are lots of ripe tomatoes at the moment, and this week I am offering my ‘Bartelly’ mini plum/cherry fruit for the first time this year, rather than buying in from the Isle of Wight. Once my harvest tails off I will return to the IoW to extend the season. Many of you will also be delighted to know that runner beans are now available alongside the French ones – I do love a runner. As if things couldn’t get any better, I am picking Discovery apples this week. They are probably a week away from being at their very best, but I just can’t resist. There are courgettes, cucumbers, kohlrabi, red and green oakleaf lettuces, pointed cabbages, beetroot, and, lordy be, red peppers! They are ripening nicely now, but numbers are very limited.

If you go out into the garden tonight you will have a very good chance of seeing a good display of meteors from the annual Perseid shower. Wouldn’t it be totally awesome if the Northern Lights made an appearance at the same time? I must go and get the cushions lined up for the greatest show not on earth.

The Olympic Games are over. I love them, but I have to say that towards the end I was getting Olympic fatigue, the television coverage is so very noisy and dominant. The next games are in LA, so viewing is going to be very much less Euro-friendly, and the ones after that are in Australia, so it will be a very long time until it as easy to watch as this Olympiad was. Anyway, after 16 days of competition my highlight was still the mountain biking, though I have to say i didn’t get to see the break dancing.

Right, I’m off to find my swimming trunks. I wonder if I can still do an Eskimo roll? Stay cool kids.

Phil