Love your local bookshop! Seriously! A sale was on and I popped in. Two chunky secondhand gardening books for £23! I follow lots of things and I know the Bob Flowerdew book is coveted by Organic gardeners. I can aspire to start using some of his tips!

As a lover of words the encyclopaedia of Latin names appeals to me. I’m not promising to pepper my blog posts with the Latin but it appeals to me that I have them if I need them.

My mother’s short stay is over and she loved pottering round the garden, covering up the black underlay with gravel, getting rid of some weeds and filling up the garden bin. Lots of spiky interlopers have disappeared and I have jobs to consider. We cut quite a lot off the front hedge and pulled out lots of the wrong valerian and uncovered the plants I added last year. I have loads of bulbs to try and get into the ground so I must try and have a day gardening before December? Hey it’s only the 16th! It can be done! I am only working 30 hours a week! Gulp!