IT'S A QUAGMIRE

 Nothing but a quagmire,

And nothing but a heartache . . 

One of the wettest Octobers I can remember and every morning seems to start grey and dark, rain spattering the windows - not much encouragement to get in the garden . . .

But I do a little, cut back some Michaelmas daisies and rue, pull up the cosmos now over, bring compost to the dahlias. 

So far our dahlias have over wintered in the ground with a good hefty much of compost to protect them.

However I have had to change the access to the heaps as the grass is sodden - used a trick from the golf course using alkathene piping. That will remind me to go a less slippery way - with less chance of falling (which I do).

Yet, if we get a short burst of sunlight the Acer is there to cheer me up. 

It is next to the transplanted Euonymus which should have turned bright red by now - but has not. This was it last year.

So, off we went for a few days to our daughter in Herefordshire and left home to the mercy of torrential rain.

When we got back, what a change - the dahlias were all but over, the leaves were almost all off the acer shown above, the cherries had begun to turn and the cercidiphyllum had coloured well.

The rain is driving, the gale is blowing and it is colder. The big trees are mostly stripped of leaves and I must rescue tender plants before it is too late. What do I cover with mulch, what do I pot up and place somewhere safe?

Not today, anyway, today we cross the bay for a funeral of an old friend who has left us - lots of memories today, Stephen went ten years ago and now it is farewell to Jan.