AUTUMN IN AUGUST?

Well, the second potato dug up did better than the first. I had forgotten they were redskins - a bit floury but good for roasties. 

I have finally struggled out between showers and with the temperature only 13C (it feels like autumn already) to mow some of the lawn with the little mower. Even so there was a lot of clogging.

The air outside is full of birds from herons (pterodactyls) and buzzards to bluetits and a horde of goldfinches. (That should be a charm really.)

The pheasants are skulking in the undergrowth

and there is a mess under the feeders (especially from the goldfinches and their Nyger seed) that I need to clear up. The chaffinches seem to like ground feeding though not exclusively and here is a dunnock that had crept out of the bushes. Who would think that this little brown bird is one of the most promiscuous.

After R trimmed back the big buddleia outside the kitchen window to let in some light I decided more radical action was needed so it is now a stump. Whether it regrows - ? - we will see. There is plenty of buddleia elsewhere. On Saturday I counted 14 small tortoiseshell butterflies on the big one by the septic tank.

Now the scythe has been out, only a smaller Austrian one not the big English blade, and part of the wood is done. Of course it is the raking off and carting away that is hard work. I do not want to leave the cut stuff on the ground as it feeds the soil and changes the wood. Wild flowers in woodland tend to like a poor earth.

R has pulled up all the opium poppies and borage from the new bed.

 On the right is our pear - not a good crop this year - and we have only  a handful; of Victoria plums - left.

 On the other hand the Bramley apples and damsons are looking good for a bumper crop. They must have missed the frost on the blossom.

By the back door (the front door but it is at the back) the michaelmas daisies are out of control flopping over the paving - they will have to come out later. Meanwhile I have used two old tree stakes to hold them back so the postman does not get sodden trousers.

And finally the warm muggy wet weather has brought out the cluster flies, here on a storage box by the veg beds - do not mind them - not like the clegs, that bite, their pincer-like mouth parts slicing through the skin.