Drought continues

The drought continues (apparently the worst in France for 211 years). The last few days the temperatures have dropped a little but remain in the 30's in the afternoon. The sheep, constantly trying to find green vegetation are escaping two or three times a day and now we no longer bother putting the electric fence on because they ignore it and in the dry conditions it is very difficult to get a good earth connection on the fence charger. As three years ago (the last time we had a drought), we 've taken to taking the sheep on 2-3 hour walks morning and evening so they can graze the verges etc and find what they need. Tiring as the morning walk often starts at 5.30am! For the moment, walks in the hills for us are on hold. There are forecasts of three days of storms in a weeks time, but the rain always seems to be "next week" but never arrives. It looks like a 'mast year' so hopefully the sheep will be able to make up for the poor grass with acorns in the autumn.

Somehow apples, melons, courgettes, squashes and butternuts are managing to keep producing but with a hosepipe ban strictly in force and limited supplies of stored rainwater the rest of the garden is desertified. We have no kiwi fruit, very few raspberries and the potato harvest was poor. 

With Architecture work still to complete, starting the new weaving project is on hold. This gives me time to research "sectional warping" a method of getting the warp threads on the back beam of the loom suited to long warps or warps with complex colour changes, which I hope will better suit my weaves. Further equipment is needed that I am gradually, buying or building -  a tension box, a bobbin rack, a sectional beam and a thread measurer.

Typical sectional warping set up