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.

A lunchtime walk down the lane and the heat is already building. What rain we had last month has dried up and the land is again turning brown and the wheat fields are becoming indistinguishable from the meadows.

But not all moisture is gone – a last few blackberries (small but sweet) and elderberries are still in the hedgerows and I might venture back down the track this evening to pick a few.

I have to admit a fascination for combine harvesters and I could watch them do their thing for hours. One of my usual cycle routes heads straight through an area of arable fields and this sometimes gives me a good view of the action.

Last year the harvest seemed to go on for weeks and I saw a lot of it happening. However, this year, it seems to be over far too quickly and the action seems to have been while I’ve not been on my bike to see it.

This seems to be the story of the year so far; the days and weeks passing very quickly and before I know it the seasons have moved on. With August already here I need to make sure I’m out in my bike as much as I can be to make best use of the remaining summer.