It’s late August and across the local park it is looking more like late September. This situation is all down to the drought of course. The grass can be dried to a crispy brown and it will still regrow with the first serious rainfall, however not so for the trees. Some of the big ol’ mature trees in Christchurch Park have decided to cut their losses for this year and drop their leaves early.
I think you can see from the photographs that some varieties are coping better than others. It is mostly the horse chestnuts, possibly weakened by disease, that are taking the biggest hit and are already standing amongst a carpet of dead leaves. I hope they are strong enough to make a full return next year.
Somethings that won’t be in the park next year are the decorated model owls of Ipswich’s art trail for summer 2022, ‘The Big Hoot‘. This owl might have been named ‘Skool’s Owt’, but with its questioning expression and smart uniform it now stands before an empty playground littered with fallen leaves, and instead appears to be heralding the arrival of autumn and the return to school.
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Agnes Ashe 
I loved that owl and you took excellent photographs of the poor trees. I hope you had rain today as we did and that they will return to full health and strength soon.
Yes, I think that that owl was one of the best. Yes, we had a little rain. Ipswich missed most of it, but apparently in Bury St Edmunds they had flooding after a deluge.
Those poor trees…
Yes, pretty grim.
Sadly so
We’ve had 2 dry months with the same look, brown grass and wilting bushes. Earlier this week we had a half day hard rain. It helps but I worry about the trees too. Here it’s sycamores that are dropping leaves and shedding bark.
Yes, it is all getting more and more worrying as even in the affluent West it appears that serious drought and wildfires has come as a surprise to governments. In England reservoirs are below normal for this time of year and many parts of the country already have hosepipe bans in place.
No one in my immediate area is rationing water (we had a very rainy winter and spring) but this dry spell is a reminder all right.
To be fair, horse chestnuts here, and on the continent, have been suffering for years from some disease that causes them to lose their leaves already in summer. I don’t think it’s any worse this year. But it’s a grin situation for so many plants. Going to London really shocked me. It’s so much worse there than here- really desiccated. But your shots have made the best of a bad situation.
It is pretty grim and seems as though the weather is in tune with the dire political and economic situation across the country. Energy and water are key in both systems. Sigh.
There are no words …
If I visited England now there would be no chance of me getting homesick with all the shots of brown grass that I am seeing on my social media feeds.
It’s certainly not a green and pleasant land!