Dwindling ...

...the number of posts and the number of readers I suspect

and the harvest too

but it was a good year for French beans

and I will definitely grow them again.

Sissinghurst and Great Dixter continue to mellow beautifully

 and there is an exciting new place to visit,

Tillingham, a biodynamic vineyard, 

with rooms and a restaurant in the heart 

of the Sussex countryside.

There was a son in San Francisco

and another newly established in Tokyo.

This butterfly looks a little how I feel.

I'm never good with the shortening days

and this seems to have been a particularly swift descent into Autumn.

Pencil sharpening, new term feelings were not as marked as in previous years

but for this one

a fifth birthday

and an exciting first week at big school are under her belt.

For now, in these troubling times,

I seek solace in scenes like those above,

the writings of Gladys Taber, (thanks Nan)

and seek to adopt the Zen-like attitude

of this ram.

See you, I hope,

before we all fall over the cliff.

From darkness to light

 

 Watching a distant storm skimming the horizon

while standing on dry land

with just the slightest feeling 

that the wind could bring the trouble nearer
and there we are without an umbrella or galoshes.

Then breathing a sigh of relief as it passes

and the sun returns.

If only all our worries could be blown away so easily.

The Last Hurrah - Sissinghurst

It looks quiet from up here on the tower parapet

but actually it was very busy

as people took advantage of another beautiful Saturday

to visit Sissinghurst before it closes for the winter.

Back home I brought in the last of the Cosmos

in anticipation of the Arctic blast being  excitedly flagged up

by the tabloids for the end of the week.

The clocks go back, the days contract

and I have taken delivery of a new chair.

(I'll show it to you later.)

I see more sitting in my future.

There has not been much of that of late.

Chasing my tail

It has been a particularly good year for hawthorn

and pink campion.

The foxcubs - there are three this year 

don't be fooled by this tender only-child scene -

have trampled happily over most of the emerging plants in the garden,

but the runner beans have a bamboo barricade 

which has survived their predations, 

I think.

I'd better go and check.

Yes. It's working.

And while I was out there I managed a little garbage collection.

The new game is scattering other people's refuse

all over the garden.

We have a handy new recycling system which separates out

the food waste into smaller bins for the foxes' better convenience.