I have had to give up my gardening job after an excruciating weekend, a day spent with friends in Leamington and my fingers going numb and aching with shooting pains. Maybe I am too old for such a job change..,

I wanted to go out just now and see to my own garden but a torrential downpour in the last ten minutes put paid to that idea. I have a poorly child too which doesn’t help – are we about to succumb to the yearly lurgies? – and I want to start job hunting again asap.

I also worry that my soil in the garden is the wrong ph? I must buy a soil tester to ensure the gardeners before me didn’t fill the beds with ericaceous or alkali soils as things I have been planting seem to struggle and I have been assuming that areas where daffodils grow in excess won’t be other than normal ph?

I’ve started Xmas shopping and I have a feeling that my finances will have to be protected rather than splurged in December. Oh well, good while it lasted!