Autumn?

It was a cold start to the morning, and whilst 10 degrees doesn't sound bad, there was a nip in the air. So I was outside by 8 o'clock, in t-shirt, thin sweater and sweat-shirt, plus jogging trousers over my shorts, and, although the sun was trying to get through, the valley was wreathed in mist.


Well, what happened to the temperature? You've guessed it! Within half an hour of working outside I was down to t-shirt and shorts. And it has been lovely all day.

In between continuing to cement the pigsty roof, I started to clear some of the many piles of stones about the garden.

Whilst I was clearing the sides of the ramp into the barn, Sue called me to see 'her' snake who was down by the compost heaps again, sunning himself. Then, blow me down, but didn't I find a 'shedded' snake skin in amongst the stones which make up the barn ramp!

We now realise that, as the ramp is just stones covered with some earth, the whole thing is full of gaps between the stones; an ideal home for reptiles.

Whilst all of this excitement was occurring, Sue was putting compost down beside the box hedge out the front. She has been 'aquiring' irises from our English neighbours and she has some 200 odd to find homes for! Hence the need to prepare the soil so we can have them along the hedge.

When our neighbours return at the end of September they won't recognise their Iris bed!