It really was the most glorious day on Saturday. The sky was blue and more or less cloudless. There was a gentle breeze. Mid-afternoon, it was about 28d. (I know the Met Office weather stations don’t think it got that hot – but the thermometer in our garden did. It might not be an official weather station but I think it’s more or less accurate.) Anyway. It doesn’t really matter what the temperature was. It was a lovely day.

We didn’t do very much with it. The Builder went up to the allotment to do a few small jobs. We went back later for peas and tomatoes. We pottered around. We sat on the patio and drank wine. We saw an enormous bird circling overhead. Bigger than anything I’ve seen around our way before. We get kestrels fairly frequently (these are not big!) and sparrowhawks sometimes. But never before a buzzard, which is what The Builder said the big bird was. It was, I think, eyeing off a pigeon but, to the advantage of the pigeon, its attention was distracted by a light aircraft which was pottering about in the sky and it gave up thoughts of dinner. And then I saw a sparrowhawk on Sunday. As I said, we do see them sometimes, but seldom enough for it to be a matter of note when we do.

Sunday was cloudier and cooler. And we still didn’t do all that much. We went into Sheffield to deliver some things to Freyja and to collect a large suitcase that we had lent her. She’s still got the other one. She and it disappeared this morning for a two week potter about the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee. The hippos have gone too. We didn’t really get around to any of the things we had been intending to do – such as clearing up the allotment, doing things in the garden, baking cakes. I did make a crumble for dessert with a Bramley from the tree and a stick of rhubarb from the plant at the bottom of the garden which appears to think it is spring. And I watered all the pots and boxes. It may have been cloudy but it didn’t rain, and hasn’t rained for a couple of weeks, and not properly for ages.

The Builder got his pay slip on Friday and was a bit disconcerted to discover that it was about half what he had been expecting. This was a bit worrying because The Vixen has just been serviced and had her MOT done and the bill comes to about £450! Not an ideal time to be underpaid!!! He hadn’t been paid for the bank holiday we had recently. And nor had he been paid his “Oh, you’ve turned up to work so we’ll pay you a bonus which makes your pay up to something reasonable” bonus (I think they follow this peculiar practice so they can pay their employees less for their (legally required) holiday pay). He trundled in to work on Monday, armed with his payslip and a question or two, to find that someone else had had their pay similarly reduced. And at least one someone else had had their pay doubled in size! It’s all being sorted out this week (though the poor person or people who had been accidentally given someone else’s pay may have a lean week of it next week :-S )

I have been pondering the question of fleas lately. As far as I am aware, we do not have fleas in the house. I sprayed the house with an environmentally unsound, sooper-dooper flea spray before Lindsey came. It is supposed to be effective for 12 months. I bought Marlo a super-strength flea collare, also supposed to lat for 12 months. Marlo is not complaining about being attacked by fleas. I haven’t seen any fleas. I have seen no sign that there are any fleas. And yet – I keep on waking up in the mornings with bites about my person. Yucky bites that hurt. You will not, therefore, be surprised to learn that yesterday morning I found not one but TWO mosquitoes in the bedroom. Not impressed, was I. Fleas, yes. Midges – only to be expected. But *mosquitoes*? In Derbyshire? Pfffffff is all I can say to that!

It is becoming distinctly autumnal. It’s cool and misty in the mornings now. And getting dark disquietingly early. The sun isn’t rising now until 6:30, so it’s not light until 6-ish. And it sets again at 7:30, so dark by just after 8. Nearly time to dig out the timers for the downstairs lamps.

Shall we go to Dorset or Somerset or Hampshire or Wiltshire between Christmas and New Year? There seem to be many choices