The rains came to visit and then decided to stay. Lots of rain, lots of sun, lots of rainbows, with warm days and mild nights. Storms battered the UK and floods brought various areas to a standstill.

Early in the month, on the bank of the river at dusk, we made a recording of birdsong and to my delight there were many more birds around than I had previously realised. However, on reading the list of suggested birds, the App revealed that one of the songs came from a Canada Jay.

How about this as something to celebrate – one of the RSPB founders, Emily Williamson, launched a campaign in 1889 to end the slaughter of birds for fashion. Emily joined forces with Etta Lemon and Eliza Phillips of ‘Fur, Fin and Feather Folk’ of Croydon, and Winifred Cavendish-Bentinck.

By the end of August the UK had entered a ‘False Autumn’, brought about by the extreme weather conditions that had occurred during July and August. The MET informs us that it was the 3rd warmest August since 1884, with the rainfall well below the average.

I looked up the blog for July 2022 and the first paragraph pointed out the obvious signs of climate breakdown staring us in the face with temperatures reaching 30 degrees, followed by severe floods.

Once again the month was described by the MET Office as ‘mostly quiet and uneventful’. It doesn’t fit the description of the month we experienced; on The Lizard we rarely fit into any weather report.

According to the MET Office, May came with a quiet and uneventful set of weather. Down here on the Lizard, it felt much better than that. I did a quick comparison with May of last year.

Keats referred to the Bluebell, (or Wild Hyacinth), as ‘Saphire Queen of the mid-May’ but with the changing weather patterns and warmer winters it is now ‘Queen of mid-April’. The woods and the hedges on our track were heaving with the curly, purple bells and the heady scent of these flowers.

Although the first half of the month was unsettled in its weather, it had none of the drama of February. In general, the days were mild and often sunny but the nights were bitterly cold and full of frosts, and many a morning was bathed in patches of mist and fog.

The winds blew hard on New Year’s Eve and gifted us with a wild night and a roaring campfire but we woke to the warmest of days on the first of January. A flow of subtropical air had blown in from the Azores and was bathing the UK in its warmth.

Our December was mild despite Storm Barra arriving on the first day of the month. Ireland and the North of England were hit badly with up to 6,000 homes without power, ferries cancelled, floods and fallen trees causing havoc.

The weather remained mild and settled for most of the month with a visit from Storm Arwen in the last week, which devastated the North of England and Scotland but barely touched us here on The Lizard.

According to the trusty MET Office, the weather for this month was dreary, damp and unsettled. Here on The Lizard, we had many misty mornings which then developed into clear, bright sunny days with temperatures well above normal for this time of year. Sea swimming was definitely still on the agenda.

Every year during the summer months of July and August, we are led to believe that this will be the best harvest ever of blackberries. We are often disappointed and many a glorious display of unripe red berries never come to fruition.

Yes, the waning days of July had lulled us into a false sense of security, promising delicious long days outside with heat from dawn to dusk. And then came August and the school holidays and of course the wind, the rain, the mists, the dark clouds, with only an occasional fleeting glimpse of the warm […]