Unwelcome Visitors

I may love autumn but I am not quite so fond of the visitors to the house that autumn sometimes brings!

I noticed an ENORMOUS, Frannie-eating moth on the hall ceiling the other night as I was heading to bed. In years gone by this would have been a catastrophic disaster. I was most definitely not fond of moths (oddly, butterflies were ok). As time has gone on, I have been much less fussed by them, so I decided to sort it out in the morning and went to bed.

Naturally, the moth wasn't there when I got up in the morning. It had moved to a much more convenient location on the wall by the TV in the lounge room. I captured it and took it outside. It was quite pretty, seen up close

A fearsome monster, I'm sure you'll agree

Then I saw a spider loitering on the floor by the pantry door. I went and got my spider capturing glass, only for the spider to scurry under the pantry door and disappear towards the back. I was somewhat surprised to see a cockroach lurking on the pantry floor. It was dispatched with insect spray. THEN, as I was getting the food processor out, a mouse appeared and ran at speed towards the spare bedroom. Fortunately, for its long term prospects, the cats were asleep elsewhere and didn't notice it. I haven't seen any further sign of it. If it is a sensible mouse it will have headed out to the garage where the cats (and I) won't disturb it.

I'm not sure why all these creatures are moving into the pantry. There isn't anything of interest in there for them. All food is in pest safe containers. There is no food lying around, nothing for them to nibble. It's not even a peaceful, quiet space. I open the doors, rummage around, move things about several times a day. A deep clean of the pantry wasn't high on my list of things to do. It is now!

The weather has become colder. I have pulled up the tomato plants and brought all the green tomatoes inside. Not as many as last year, but there weren't as many plants. The beans are finished and I am about to pull them up and then make a start on my garden reorganisation project. I can't move the fruit bushes yet; they're still in full leaf. 

Last picking of runner beans for this year

I put the little radiator on in the bedroom yesterday morning so the room would be warm when the district nurse came to give Jim his shower. Not five minutes later:

It wasn't THAT cold yesterday morning!

Another autumn sunrise