+++ Whoops! Here comes the cheese! +++

Cherryfudge

I think the long hot, dry spell set the trees back: a lot of chestnut trees here have blotchy leaves and our birch is shedding bright yellow leaves though most of the foliage is okay. I had some photos from a few years ago come up on my phone - this time of year. What really struck me was that the corn fields were green, whereas now they're absolutely ready for harvest.

We also have autumn's spiders a good few weeks early!

redofromstart

Thank you for your kind comments everyone, and yes a bit of a low run.  Looking at the stages of grief I think I veer between depression and acceptance now, with the odd bout of anger at life in general, and will no doubt continue to do so for some time yet. 

Trying to use up stuff and made this nice tea loaf with some slightly OOD dried fruit.  It turned out well, and will be frozen in slices so I don't slip into eating cake for every meal for three days. 

rtandon27

Yum - that recipe looks good - think I'll bookmark it for those chilly autumnal days that I'm not quite ready to accept are here - maybe in a month or so?

There is a place in everyone's life for a few days of dawn to dusk cake!  Eventually your body will say enough and ask for some veg!

Watty1

That looks really nice, have printed it out as I do have quite a bit of stuff to use up that might work in something like that. 

redofromstart

As predicted I have mostly eaten cake. My stomach is most unhappy as a result so I went food shopping this morning. I really want some quiche (thanks to @debtfreewannabe321 mentioning it in her food plans) but completely forgot that, eggs or butter.

The food shop is close to my favourite garden centre so I accidentally went there as well. Invested £4.50 in a nice fluffy door stop for the spare bedroom so I can stop jumping out of my skin every time the door slams shut. I could, of course, have simply shut the window, but the tiny tabby is a Ninja cat who likes to enter the building via climbing a tree to the roof, scuttling along the guttering and then drop in through that window. She sometimes brings presents that way, but sadly never a nice tray of chocolate.

I also bought a good sized half price Vinca, 'Verino' to join my Vinca collection in the shade border. They had several forms that I don't have also reduced but I resisted temptation and reminded myself that it is just 'stamp collecting' when there are such subtle differences.  

Cherryfudge

That cat needs more training. Otherwise a productive day: vinca acquired, cake temptation reduced. Are you going to make another foray past the garden centre for eggs and butter?

redofromstart

I did actually manage to stay away from the garden centre Cherryfudge, it is too hot to plant things and the watering burden already takes quite a bit of time each day.  I have even had to crisis water mature established shrubs this year which I generally try not to do.

The weather does seem to have helped the fruit trees, huge crop of apples, pears and plums between us and next door.  Even my grape vine is fruiting nicely.  

DS1 has some friends staying and others visiting which meant a lot of cleaning and putting away got done.  It looks much better but I am shattered as a result.  I never have mastered pacing myself but a house full of people meant I spent most of yesterday keeping out of the way by reading in my room which helped.  

I did invest in a Sh4rk carpet washer (the pet one, arg0s offer) and am really pleased with it as it doesn't clog like the previous machines and does a good job. I think both @Sun_Addict and @EssexHebridean influenced the purchase as they had both enthused about the results. I burned the motor out on my b1ssell last year which was only a couple of years old and the V4x prior to that was nowhere near as effective.  You can actually clean out all the bits of the new one, rather than having bits that you can't get the hair or trapped dirt out of.

jwil

I'm glad the carpet cleaner is working well.  I previously had a V*x one and it was rubbish.  I might consider one again.

Cherryfudge

Well done for resisting the temptation of the garden centre! In my case, I seem to find plants to buy even if I'm doing late-evening shopping for groceries, which is why a pot of thyme came home with me the other day (50p, and it's a nice plant). I agree about the time spent watering and the bountiful harvest this year. 

KajiKita

I have been channeling you today … 😊
When planting out some salvias under the Japanese Maple I knocked one of the stems off …
So, I brought it inside, carefully stripped the majority of big leaves off it, nipped out the flower bud at the top and dropped it in a small measuring cylinder to see if it will root. Nothing to lose after all 😊

KK