Chris Wyatt's Patterdale Hall, as seen from above.
The Patterdale Hall Diaries | Peak summer
- Published: August 29, 2025
By Chris Wyatt
June 21, 2025
Midsummer is upon us, and the weather is glorious. The plants are all creaking with growth. A week of temperatures in the 90s is just what the chili peppers and tomatoes need.
Archie, however, is flaked out on the sofa, sighing and occasionally huffing. The small, black dog does not do very well in the heat, and today will be an air-conditioned day for the wee beast. It would be wonderful to have another dog, but little Arch will not tolerate one. Morris was looking at redbone coonhounds the other day. They are very beautiful dogs indeed — their ears look so velvety — but little Arch will have none of it.
June 30, 2025
I was stung by a female dark paper wasp — likely P. metricus — a few days ago. I don’t recommend it: A very painful sting and the pain persisted for five days. The pain shifted from sharp stinging pain to bruised burning pain, and finally hellish itching. I have a fair-sized hole in my arm where the sting went in. Anyway, I killed it with Raid, and destroyed the nests that it had built behind the garage door.
Mowing in the summer is a dangerous business: ground bees last year and horrid black wasps this year. I couldn’t see skunks rescuing us this time, which is why I went for chemical weapons. I am now much more careful when I open the garage door.
We had a busy weekend and introduced Archie to a potential housemate. Raulie is a poodle/boxer/terrier cross, and he is a very sweet young dog. Archie hated him. The introduction went poorly. Archie’s persistent aggressive barking, growling, and snapping was met with bemused indifference by Raulie, but looks of concern from the residents of The Vale, where he was being fostered.
Sorry about my dog, Ryan.
We decided it was best not to adopt Raulie into a house occupied by a tiny demon; we removed Archie, and peace was restored to The Vale. There is a happy ending, though. Later that day, Raulie was adopted by a woman who is an experienced dog rescuer, and who has a fenced-in yard. He is only a young dog and so the woman decided to rename him “Archie.” It’s a terrific name, well chosen — an auspicious name, if you will.
July 4, 2025
I am re-reading “The Wild Places,” by Robert Macfarlane; it is a beautiful book. A fellow of Emmanuel College Cambridge, Macfarlane has been nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in literature. His writing is precise and evocative. In “The Wild Places,” he visits some of the last remaining wilderness areas in the British Isles and celebrates them with some of the best prose I have ever read.
Patterdale Hall isn’t wild. It is tended, but unfarmed. I would make a dreadful farmer. However, it is wilder than the acres of monoculture that surround it. Patterdale woods does have old growth trees, but probably nothing much older than 150 years, and the majority of the trees are probably about 50 years old. As I have mentioned before, some of the evergreen trees were Shawnee’s Christmas trees, and so will only be … well … a gentleman doesn’t discuss a lady’s age.
We will continue to tend Patterdale Hall, keeping the lawn neat and the honeysuckle knocked back. We will also begin to plant more native trees in the fall. Karen and I spent some time looking at trees the other day and will make some decisions once I have recovered from my surgery in August. I do like the shape of sweetgum trees, I’d like another tulip poplar to replace the one that is splitting, and a couple of oaks would be a lovely addition.
The wasp that stung me was P. metricus, confirmed by my entomologist friend Dr. John Stireman. I love working at a university.
It is Independence Day today, but upon reflection, I prefer flowers to fireworks, and so will tour a beautiful back yard belonging to our neighbor. She happens to be Morris’ girlfriend’s grandmother, and has dedicated a lot of time to creating an English-style country garden. The perfume from the flowers is intoxicating, and she accosted me as I was walking Archie first thing this morning to invite us to wander through later today. I accepted; it really does look perfect.
July 7, 2025
We are in the thick of summer now. I was going to pop into work to get classroom preparation out of the way, but it is lovely outside, so I have decided to spend time at Patterdale Hall. All our crops are exploding with life and so I’ll do a spot of watering and weeding. Not that we really need to do a lot of weeding, this is not an intensive farming operation.
I will walk Archie through the woods; he had a rough night as he kept getting up to see where Morris was. Morris went to a bonfire on President Street, then ate Waffle House at 3:30 a.m. and finally a dozen of his schoolfriends watched the sun rise from the Gaunt Park hill. Morris is experiencing peak summer in Yellow Springs, Ohio.
Unfortunately, after a two-hour doze, he then had to get up to work a prep shift at the Winds. He was smiling as he left, though.
Being 18 years old is pretty wonderful.
*Originally from Manchester, England, Chris Wyatt is an associate professor of neuroscience, cell biology and physiology at Wright State University. He has lived in Yellow Springs for 17 years, is married and has two children and an insane Patterdale terrier.
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