We've had some showers but amounts have been quite trivial and evaporated within minutes as a rule so still dry and dusty.

I'm surprised how well grassland is holding out and also some of the springs which supply remote water troughs seem fine so far - when in past summers they have begun to fail in shorter dry spells.
Ground water is clearly still reasonably high. 

last night we had a decnt amount of rain, not sure how much as neighbour with proper rainguage is away. first real rain for 3 weeks. grass on the sand and gravel has burnt up, but on clay is still fairly green . dug some gateposts in the other day and the clay was still quite moist below 18 inches. the local winterbourne has only just dried up so that is nothing exceptional. last year was the exception when after drying up in april it started running full bore in july.

Had a stroll to the nearby river today and it's definitley lower than normal, there's also a brook nearby and that's almost at a trickle even after the downpours.

I notice in past dry spells when the water levels drop very very slowly each day but come a downpour and after that the levels drop faster and lower than before the dounpour arrived.  On Monday I checked the river and the 3ft water fall that give you good indicator how much the thickness of the water flow and it was very slowly dropping but will check this Sunday to see if this drop fast after this morning heavy rain.