3rd - 4th October

Well, we are definitely into an autumn month. We have been really blessed with a good end to September. If it had continued how it started I think that most plants would have been washed away or would have simply rotted in the damp, but thanks to warm and dry conditions we have had our Indian summer, albeit a short and late one. In the daytime, these conditions continue, but early morning and after sunset, you know it is early autumn. The other night we had winds that brought down quite a few leaves, ones which were dead and dry but still in the trees. Last night, as we went to bed with feet like blocks of ice and moving quickly due to the chill, we admitted that we would probably put on the central heating today, and indeed we did. I try to put it off for as long as possible, especially this year with higher prices for gas, but we do have a one year old to consider who sleeps in the back, draughty room and soon throws off his covers. The heating will be for a few hours in the evening just to take off the going to bed chill, and maybe an hour in the morning as we get up. It is now only a matter of time before the last of the fuchsias, petunias and sweet peas will meet their end and it could all change suddenly or indeed continue for another week or so.

 

I love the smell of autumn. Although I hate to see the end of a productive growing season, but I get huge satisfaction from clearing away the spent plants and tidying up, with that autumnal scent and crisper air providing a sensory backdrop. Often the skies are a crisp blue and there are vivid reddish brown colours everywhere you look.

 

This afternoon I stopped by the allotment and picked 10 courgettes. I could hardly believe the size of one of them considering the temperature and lateness of the season. Seven of the courgettes were really very thin but I still count them as the size of previous ones more than compensate. It’s the yellow ones that are the small ones, the green ones are still going well. Last year, the green ones were rather slow in producing fruit but the variety I chose this year has been great. I also picked another bags’ worth of spinach and I harvested the crown prince squashes – 3 of them weighing a total of just over 8kg, the largest one being 3.6kg, the smallest 1.75kg. I just hope the taste lives up to the hype.

 

Back home, I made finishing touches to the concrete base for the playhouse which should go up tomorrow. I can’t wait to get the boys’ toys inside that thing.

 

4^th October

Well, the playhouse is up. My wife's brother and his father-in-law (the man who built it originally) came to put it together. It needed a new fold of roofing felt over the apex but apart from that, all is well. The boys are very excited about it and I am keen to make it into a house that hordes all their garden toys. Earlier in the day I was doing a bit of tidying up and generally pottering around the garden. As I went to move the playhouse’s garage from the front garden where it has been sheltering our recycling bin, much to my neighbours’ dislike – mind you, he dislikes the fact we keep our bins in the front garden as he thinks it far better to have to move them from round the back every week – I stumbled on a small, fourth pumpkin weighing 1 kg. I picked it as the stem looked as though it had well and truly had it – so 4 pumpkins in the front garden!

Next Post: 10th Oct