There’s been little rain in the last few weeks, and something of a mini-heatwave in the last week or so. As a result, plants are beginning to suffer, and Irish Water may impose water usage restrictions soon. Two years ago, there was a real heatwave, with drought and high temperatures for a prolonged period. I took the picture above on a sweltering June day in Ballycommon, Co. Offaly. Silage was being cut in the fields beside the canal, and the driver of the tractor-trailer rig, along with another one, was using the canal path as a one-way system – she’d drive down the path to enter the field, collect the mown silage and then exit through the front gate of the field. All at maximum revs, of course.