It’s many weeks since I last took a dawn wander down the lane to the sheep fields. The sunrise has been so early that even I, a usual early riser, haven’t been up before the sun has broken the horizon for quite some time.

This morning I was up just at the right moment of the ‘golden hour’ to take a few phone photos of the mist in the shallow valleys beneath me. I was surprised to see any sign of moisture at all given we are in the fourth heatwave of the summer and drought conditions were announced some time ago. It’s going to be around 30 degrees Celsius today, not hot in comparison by the current continental extremes being experience but still a continuation of the warm or very warm weather we’ve had most of the summer and reaching back into the spring.

One of the real differences between this and my last dawn visit to the bottom of the lane was the bird song. Gone is the vibrant, energetic, many-voiced dawn chorus and in its place a softer and more subtle melody of a few individuals. Today there were two wrens on opposing sides of the track alternating their calls and a robin perching high in a tree with its quiet song of autumn.

…and it does feel slightly like autumn or, if not, approaching the latter part of summer. Despite the ongoing hot weather, those misty fields show that the cooler days of the next season are not too far away.