Friends again

I shan’t post yet another picture of the cat. This is supposed to be a gardening blog after all.   But the good news is Artur has forgiven me.   He hasn’t come out from under the table very much.   But he did seek me out in the garden where I was working on draining the pool and demanded to have his head scratched and be stroked.   That’s a relief.

If he only knew what a lovely roaring fire we have indoors he would be in like a shot.   We had drinks up at his owners house last night and I was pleased to see that he gets his very own chair right next to their stove.  Â  Jean Daniel was called out twice in the night to attend to fallen trees during the storm.   No airs and graces for deputy mayors.   Have chain saw, will clear roads seems to be the motto.   Even at midnight in a howling gale.

Today was a beautiful autumn day.   It really is too mild for a fire, but it’s so fun having a good one at long last that we couldn’t resist.   I didn’t quite get round to the grasses, but seemed to spend ages picking up chestnut burrs and working on my compost heap.

This one is behind my potting shed and I really need to stop adding to it and let it start to rot down in peace.   It’s too big to turn so it will have to be a static heap.   I have excavated an area beside the heap for this autumns’ prunings.   And try not to be lazy and dump yet more chestnut leaves and burrs on top of the current one.

I had a companion briefly during my toils.   Ulysse has escaped yet again.   He was getting stuck into the pears that had fallen down near one of Jean Daniel’s trees. And bless me if he didn’t discover that the current on the electric fence was off.   One quick visit to me to see if I had any apples. I didn’t. And he was off down the road at a quick gallop to visit his friends.   The seasons may change but some things stay the same.

The vegetable bed was my next port of call (after calling Jean Daniel to alert him to the sneaky stallion’s escape number 623) was the lower vegetable bed.   Would you believe that I still have fresh tomatoes on the plants? Ripe red fruit still going strong. They went into a salad pretty smartly, and I even dug up some mighty parsnips for dinner.   I have tried to give you an idea of the scale.   They are huge.   And delicious.   Perfect winter warming veg.   Except it’s not winter.   Tomorrow I must do the grasses.