FOG, FAUNA AND FLOWERS

R shouts and she has seen the stoat running along the top of the back wall with something in its mouth - a baby rabbit or a squirrel?

Talking animals we now have both roe doe and hart in the small wood eating the hazel.

It its definitely autumn - Friday and we wake to a thick mist.

The cardoon was falling into the canna lily so out with the stakes. The flower heads get very heavy.

I have dug out a crososmia riddled with couch grass and transplanted white honesty and forgetmenots to fill the gap using a mixture of well rotted manure and compost to enrich the soil.

We have damsons. not a lot but some, a load of pears and eating the last of the plums off the tree on a hot day is a treat.

I have trimmed the cotoneaster and dead headed the astrantia scattering the seed.

We have two hot days ahead then the rain marches east again.

The nest above the back door has been taken down and is full of feathers from the tree sparrows. House martins have been whizzing past the kitchen door and exploring nest sites - for next year we hope.

So some flowers -

 

The old potatoes I bunged in, as they were sprouting in the cupboard, have given us a crop but they are only good for mashing - disintegrate in boiling water. We have a plethora of courgettes but have now eaten all the plums off the tree. Damsons still to pick plus a few apples. No greengages again - too far north?

The Virginia Creeper is turning red, some ash leaves yellow, autumn is coming and early.

And more flowers - the mighty cardoon and roses.

Monday and it is raining, soft refreshing rain, enough to wet the grass but not penetrate the soil, warm Aga kitchen weather not the sun room.