Leopard Lily (Lilium pardalinum)

Too Hot!

flower photography

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Flowers with bright, hot colours feel particularly appropriate to post after the hottest week I’ve ever experienced. The temperatures have been hotter than I could ever have imagined in the UK, reaching over 40C in a number of places. (Here in Suffolk it was a couple of degrees cooler, but still very difficult to cope with.)

We were lucky. Using fans to keep ourselves and our two cats reasonably cool worked. (Although there were a couple of panicky moments when the electricity went off. Fortunately it came back on both times, after just a few minutes.)

Elsewhere in in England (mostly in the London area) there were those who were desperately unlucky. In several places people have been made homeless as houses and possessions were burned to nothing but ash by wildfires. And I’m sure we’ve all seen the news about the dreadful wildfires that have been causing huge destruction across Europe.

Surely there cannot be any doubt that our climate is changing massively from what we are used to. Now is the time to do everything we can to care for our environment, our world and all that lives upon it. The changes we individually make may be small, but they all count. Together they help.

Daylily (Hemerocallis)
This photo: Daylily (Hemerocallis) Top photo: Leopard Lily

35 thoughts on “Too Hot!”

  1. There’s much going on that’s very disturbing atm and distracts from the very real existential threat we all face from climate change. Thanks for sharing this gorgeous flower though.. I adore the bright colour!

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    1. Hi Camille! One major thing we did was to have solar panels fitted to our house. (We plan to stay in this house, so the investment makes sense.) We get a lot of sun here and the panels produce most of what we need…spring & summer so far – yet to experience autumn & winter. Other things – we no longer fly, haven’t done for years. (That started because family responsibilities made it impossible to go away, but now we just don’t want to go abroad.) We have a small car but don’t use it a lot. Hubby is vegetarian, I rarely eat meat now too. Our garden is pesticide/herbicide-free and planted for wildlife – mainly bees and other pollinators. (That’s a work in progress, which includes a new pond.) I worked on a project for free for a wildlife trust, but that was many years ago now…but that’s an idea that still interests me. Lots of small things really!

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      1. That’s all great! I haven’t followed your blog or read through any posts that mention the environment besides this one, so wasn’t familiar if you mentioned it anywhere else! I’m glad you’re doing all those things! I think solar panels are perfect and I wish I had some… in my future house.

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  4. What has been happening there and elsewhere as a result of the temperatures is awful. The saddest part is it was predicted by science yet so many refused to believe or just shrugged and said it’s cyclical and natural. To a degree (no pun intended) it is but we have exacerbated the rate at which we are warming and apparently the financial cost to make changes is too dear for too many as opposed to the human and environmental costs which in the long run will be much greater.

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    1. I absolutely agree with you, Steve. We are being incredibly short-sighted in not taking action, however costly it may appear in the short term. it’s scary to think what the future will hold for younger generations.
      Our local council has a scheme which helps people to buy solar panels as part of a group, saving a lot of money. I wish other places would do this too. Our panels have been great, allowing us to even heat our water through the summer. Our electricity bills are tiny and right now we have enough to run a portable A/C unit, so we’ll be well-organised for the next heatwave.

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  5. Agree totally. The time for action is now. They say “no pain, no gain”, but the reality – in the longer term – is “no pain, no survival”.

    We too reached almost 40C, and spent several days hiding indoors with the curtains drawn, emerging only briefly to water the tomatoes and runner beans. Everywhere is so parched right now, very grim indeed.

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    1. The damage of these high temperatures must be huge – to all sorts of things, including vegetation everywhere and animals and birds too.
      (BTW, you asked a while back for me to let you know how we got on with the solar panels…we’re delighted with them. We do get lots of sunshine in Suffolk and we’re getting more power than we can use in the summer. We get hot water (for 2 people) and have just bought a portable A/C which is also running from the panels. Without the panels, we’d expect to pay around £130 a month for electricity but recent months have been just £20, and most of that has been standing charges. We’ve yet to see how they’ll do in winter, but as a long-term investment they’re very good. Even better, a buying scheme run by our local council made the cost of them a lot cheaper.)

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      1. Impressive figures, so the panels look like a good investment in the longer term. Unfortunately the configuration and orientation of our roof doesn’t lend itself to efficient solar panels, so it’s not something we are likely to do. I am, however, pleased with my hybrid car, which I got almost exactly a year ago. I didn’t think the infrastructure was in place to go fully electric, but the hybrid’s fuel efficiency is very impressive and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while also saving me a bit of money. A small step, to be sure, but better than doing nothing at all.

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      2. All steps, whatever their size, are good! We are very lucky indeed because our house faces SW/SSW and there’s plenty of sun all afternoon. It’s also not overshadowed by other buildings or trees. (This also means the upstairs rooms can get horrendously hot, but at least we can do something about that now.)

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  6. One of the problems is that people refuse to acknowledge the downsides of so-called ‘green energy,’ making reasonable solutions more difficult. During our extended heat wave, part of the reason our grid was ‘iffy’ at best is that the amount of energy being provided by wind farms dropped to only 2% of capacity. The reason? High pressure systems, which help to produce such high temperatures, are notable for lower wind speeds — meaning the windmills just sit, rather than spinning.

    Another issue, which requires political and diplomatic solutions as well as scientific, is that areas of the world like China and India simply are not buying into the solutions proposed here, and many African countries are understandably distressed that they’re being asked to stop development in the service of first world concerns. It’s complicated, that’s for sure.

    Which doesn’t make you any more comfortable! There’s a reason 19th century Texas homes had wrap-around porches and plenty of windows and doors. Without AC, it was one way to keep things more comfortable. You have my sympathy; summer here has brought 40C heat indices every year since I began varnishing, and it’s no fun at all!

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    1. No energy form will be perfect but a mix must help. Relying on one type is obviously going to cause problems when conditions aren’t ideal. I hope that there will be more research and development for all the different ‘green’ power sources (eg wave power, hydro-electric, solar, as well as wind turbines). What is for sure is that we’ll all be affected everywhere by the problems of climate change.
      (We were able to find some relief from the heat in the last few days by buying a portable air-conditioning unit which runs off our solar panels. Ideal, really, because the panels produce more power than we can use in summer.)

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      1. Those panels can do an excellent job. One of the necessities for boaters who use solar or wind is a ‘braking system’ that stops the charging when the batteries are full, so they don’t overcharge. It’s a fact that homeowners have more options, too. In my apartment complex, there’s no way for individuals to install solar panels, and the management certainly isn’t going to!

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  7. I wish the government would offer more in the way of grants to enable us all to insulate our homes properly, get solar panels and heat source pumps. The cost and the disruption is somewhat prohibitive to retrofit. All new homes should be built as eco homes, it’s wrong not to.

    PS I do like your hot flowers!

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    1. I completely agree with you Jude. These things should have some sort of subsidy because they do make a difference. And what huge benefit there would be in making new houses eco homes, but probably not too much extra cost in the building.

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  9. I’m sorry for the effects of Europe’s heat wave. Your comments make clear that you’re better off than many other people there. Here in Texas we’re worried that the power grid won’t hold up through the end of the summer without some blackouts or brownouts.

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    1. Yes, Steve, we’re lucky that we now have the portable A/C and that it will run from the solar panels. (But the panels will close down if the mains power goes off. And it did for a couple of short times.) The areas I really feel sorry for are those around the world where there are wildfires – that must be terrifying. (And likely to occur again in the future.)

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      1. Only last year did I learn that solar panels will stop delivering electricity to devices if the main power goes off. It was explained to me as a safety feature that would prevent people working on the main lines during a power outage from getting electrocuted by current coming from solar panels.

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      2. That’s the one drawback because it would be great to have your own power when the mains goes off. However, there is a way that you can have a socket that comes from the panels and doesn’t go off – we’re going to investigate that and see if we can have it done.

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  10. I can scarcely believe it has been so hot. Just really the weekend, Mon and Tue of that week but my goodness…Britain was supposed to be the hottest place on the planet with temperatures around an unimaginable 40 degrees which is about 20 degrees more than I am comfortable with. I was away and we had some fires around the Castleton area in North Derbyshire but back home where wildfires often rage on our moors, fortunately didn’t seem to be affected. Hopefully our government will finally recognise global warming to be serious and take action.

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    1. I hope so Jill, but I won’t old my breath. It’s shocking to see how much our temperatures have change and the wildfires are especially scary. I’m glad there were no fires on your moors.

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