It's that time of year again. Lots of little things going on all over the place. The diary is packed with bar-b-ques, birthday parties and annual village events.

A week ago Wednesday Winchester Morris Dancers were at the White Hart, the perfect excuss for a mid-week pint and a chance to catch up with a few locals not seen for a while.

Last weekend the annual horticutural society flower show, tables of the usual selections of cut flowers, fruit and veg as can bee seen at similar events across the country.

Meanwhile the long hot summer continues making village fete and flower show organisers happy across the country unless, of course, they were unlucky and caught one of the many spectacular storms we have seen in the past week.

Like many, I do enjoy this hot sunny weather with the long warm evenings, yet I still hear people complain about the heat. It really bugs me how people moan about the weather we have, if it's a damp summer then we complain, if it's a glourious summer then we complain. It was all summed up on the news this week. Farmers are reporting a bumper harvest and are harvesting earlier than ever, but the hot weather has been bad for Barley so we could see food price rises in supermarkets during the winter as a result. There's always a down side. It also made me wonder what happened to the global grain mountain and the giant European wine lake which were the results of massive over production in the past. I guess the wine lake has evaporated in this summer's drought affecting Europe and as for the grain mountain, consumed by mice?

pic shows lightning behind the George Inn, Middle Wallop. 26:06:06