Weather-wise, the last two weeks in Platt have been a mixed bag, with glorious summer days broken by short, cooler periods of much-needed rain. At the start of the month, I visited Platt School to photograph the Year Six Leavers for the Village News, and for the first time in over two years, I’d been inside the building, where I prolifically documented its construction in 2021. I have managed to get out and about several times at different hours of the day and in all weather. The ‘Platt Cats’ have been out in force, swifts circling the church tower before sunrise, a fox knawing its quarry on Windmill Hill, and a roe deer at dawn tentatively picking its way around the outskirts of a barley field and into a back garden – every step coinciding with the click of my shutter. At Great Comp, seasonal hues of every description (and more) are abundant, shaded enclaves contrasting with a panoply of colours in more sunlit areas. The evenings have been warm and humid, especially before the overnight storm which swept across the parish last Friday night; evening song from blackbirds, chaffinches, tits, chiffchaffs, larks and greenfinches soundtracking approaching heavy skies in the east.

This is Platt in the first half of June 2025.