Following our unexpectedly early ‘three seasons’ spring equinox BBQ, the UK weather delivered a prolonged heatwave.

Thanks to the growing climate crisis, after last year’s continuously unseasonable cold and wet spring and summer, causing England’s England second worst harvest on record, spring 2025 could prove to be one of the hottest and driest on record. We are already suffering the most extreme marine heatwave since satellite monitoring began.

All of which is why, last month, found Paul on our green roof having to water it with a hose. Only the second time in the ten years we have been at The Secret Acre that it has been so dry that emergency watering has been necessary.

Some things have liked the warmth though. We saw a flash of lovely bright yellow, and snapped this pic at the shed of what we thought might have been a Brimstone or Clouded Yellow butterfly, but on more knowledgeable inquiry, turned out to be a Clouded Yellow Moth. This moth is an unpredictable annual migrant to Britain, arriving from southern Europe in spring and dispersing northwards, clearly enjoying our heatwave.