Parched dry

Parts of England have bought in measures to help the drought at the moment. I live in the South East, which is one of the worst effected area.

During Karen Russell's photography workshop, she commented on one of my photos that the lichen moss looked lovely. She said, I suppose that is the price you pay for all the rain you receive.

I think a lot of people have a false view of Britain as a foggy, damp Country. For the last few years things couldn’t be further from the truth. My friend Linda bought me a fab umbrella for my birthday last year. I have only had to use it a few times, as it NEVER rains anymore.

I am sure all of us here in the UK have noticed our gardens struggling. We are a nation of gardeners. We all take a lot of pride in our beautifully, cultivated gardens.

From this week there is a hose pipe ban in my area, to try and preserve what little water we have. The lack of water can really be seen, right outside my house. I have a beautiful nature reserve on my doorstep. It has a natural spring running through it, or should I say, it used to have.

We went for a walk during the beautiful weather at the weekend. I wanted to walk into the wooded part I am always too scared to do on my own. We were both shocked how many trees had died, and how dry the river bed was.

This was Teddy is February, 2010 in the natural spring. There has been no water in it ever since.

Remember this beautiful garden I visited during Baldock’s open gardens day last May, Here

This lake is gone !! It’s totally dry now. I wonder what happened to all the fish and the poor water fowl that lived there. All the beautiful homes along that patch of the springs have dry river beds in their gardens.

We have a huge ornamental fir tree in our front garden. Our plants suffer because of it. Since we moved here it has more than doubled in size. We planted over £200 worth of plants at the front last year and they have all died. So drastic measure had to be taken.  As the lack of water is only going to get worse.

As I left for a crop, Hubby was preparing to start cutting the tree down. I warned him to take it slowly and to wait until someone was around to help him. But of course when I returned home it was GONE !

So hopefully, now all the plants that are left will start to thrive.

Now our house gets even more light streaming through it’s huge windows. In the summer it will be a big problem, as the rooms get so hot. So I am off to Ikea today, to buy some diffusing blinds to hopefully help with the problem. Hopefully, this will also give me the perfect diffused light to shoot portraits in. in the future.