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Here is a stone carving of me reclining in undergrowth. It is a bit like looking at clouds and seeing shapes. This was on the walk from Rocklcliffe to Kippford. If you cannot see the head do not worry, it is a bit Easter Islandish.

And we were surrounded by swallows, R almost trod on a slow worm, we followed a hare along the road, a red squirrel scuttled up a tree and two roe deer skipped into the woodland brush.

No, not here at The Nook, we were away for three nights in southern Scotland and no sign of a swallow or martin here. In fact all the trail camera saw in the last ten days was grey squirrels, pheasants and RABBITS!

And we are home and R has been weeding the veg beds whilst I am slowly dying of manflu - however I think I have now given it to R.

The gardener has been and strimmed the top banking - to come back to do the bottom one.

I am debating as to whether I should have the Russian sage, Perovskia atriplicifolia, dug up because of the war.

On the other hand it is not its fault Russia has a madman as its President. The war is only because of his failings at home and trying to distract his people from his mismanagement. 

Thinking about that - when are we going to Invade Europe Liz?

Forget the mess- the roses are still blooming.

The Conference pears are coming ripe - lift the fruit and if comes away easily it is ready. The only trouble with these pears is that they have a rather tough gritty skin but they are self-fertile trees so only need one.

Perhaps I should dig up the potatoes - perhaps not, I cannot face seeing all the slug damage and scab and so on.

It will be time soon to lift the cannas and store them for the winter. I should do the same for the dahlias but with a good compost covering they have survived last winter and are flowering well so the same again I think.

Occasionally things that flower in the spring do so now - like this Clematis armandii -

Elsewhere the Hydrangea Annabelle is getting too big? - right by the backdoor it has now moved on from white to green, more or less, but is overgrowing the sarcococcus next to it.

I can sit in my study and look up into the magnificent old ash tree outside (hope it does not fall on us) and think what a disaster dieback is. I hope the tree is a tough old thing.

And there are definite signs of autumn around, not least with the Acer Sango-kaku which is already turning.

In the spring I put in half a dozen Cosmos Purity, not all in one mass but here and there to lighten up corners. Now all I have to do is the same as with the dahlias - deadhead. Then we get more flowers.

Son came round last night - I have the get a new iPad as on my old one (R's old one) the glass is broken. I took it to a repairer and he said it was too damaged. Then I though I should replace my thick phone (a Nokia) with a iPhone - Aaaaagh!  Oh! For the old days when our telephone number was 329.

The sun is out, perhaps I will just check the trail camera first and see if there any damsons left.