Just this and that

The weather has been definitely autumnal for the last few days although not as cold as was reported from Scotland last night minus 8c!  The wind has been quite strong as can be seen from our weather station report a few minutes ago

The data however is hardly a reflection from this morning when it was hammering down with rain and looked like it might be in for the day. 
Even the picture from over the River Derwent below seems to hide the fact that autumn is upon us with its sunshine and shadows in the meadow. 

There has even been talk on the weather forecast at lunchtime of an "Indian summer"  Mmmmmmmm!

 

We (Sally & I) are impervious to these suggestions because in 1 weeks time we will be on our way to Gatwick to fly out to the Maldives on our 2 week super holiday.  I think I might have mentioned it to a few people already!   I have developed a "holiday theme" for the website during our absence and will publish it on the day we leave.  There's a link to "our current holiday" on there as well and i will add the odd pic as the holiday develops. 

 

Our next door neighbour John of the gardening bent is expressing surprise at how well his freshly laid turf is doing and I have to admit it is well on its way to being a "green sward"  as long as it gets the odd manicure. 





 

I had to take Tom our old black cat to the vets yesterday because he was being sick quite a bit, memories of taking poor old Grumpy who had to be put to sleep flooded back and I sat nervously cradling the cat basket awaiting our turn.  After a thorough examination and a quick jab to "settle his stomach" he was pronounced fighting fit and has been eating and not throwing it back up since.

Here he is in a philosophical pose a few days ago

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday getting all the sludge out of the bottom of the pond in preparation for winter.  There are 2 schools of thought about getting rid of it, one is that it prevents the build up of gasses through the winter as the stuff rots down and its harmful to the fish.  The other is that, "well ordinary ponds seem to manage!" I think I might be wandering down the second one myself, but as long as my pond hoover continues to work I will follow the first! 

We have had a good clear pond apart from a couple of weeks early in the season when it clouded a little, so I think we are getting it right!  I must remeber to put in the heated rod that stops it freezing over before we go on hols,  even with the promise of the "Indian summer!"

 





Finally then, today is my last "day off" before 6 straight days of shifts at the fun factory which is the local sainsbugs and then off on hols.  I think i might even enjoy every single 1!