Autumn Day

The clock change is starting to catch up with me a bit - I seem to go to bed later than I usually do and yet still get up at 7am BST so am losing out on both counts. I am trying to study when I first get up for half an hour or so as it's the only bit of the day when it's quiet enough for me to concentrate, until Henry starts of course. It has been so mild and today it was sunny too so I wanted to get into the garden and check my bees. I had thought that if I tidied up the rose border outside the study it would glavanise me into tidying up the study itself, but I only managed the first half of that intention, unsurpisingly. The study is also my er, storage area for all my various interests so I have a spare beehive for a coffee table and numerous demi-johns and boxes full of stuff and frames and beeswax everywhere. It's a bit of a tip, but outside is looking more spruced up now:

I love my roses and they put on a fabulous show this year, and I enjoy pruning too, as I enjoy choosing which stem to keep and which bud looks good and thinking about how it will look and flower next year, and Maud kept me company. Lady Emma Hamilton had one final flower that I nipped off and put in a vase; the fragrance is wonderful. I always find rose essential oil or rose-scented toiletries rather overpowering which is such a shame, as the real thing is so complex and beautiful.

It was such lovely weather, all the animals had a spell in the garden:

Duckles root around for morsels in the lawn

Drew basks in the vegetable patch

Bunbuns enjoy a frolic in their large run

Emily helps herself to my winter salads

It was lovely walking the dog round the fields too. He needed a decent run as he ate half the loaf of brioche while we were out at Laura's for history this morning. He was probably hungry having shunned his breakfast with its pulverised worming tablet hidden in the warm beef gravy that I soaked his biscuits in. Little horror.

I have cast on the next project which, as with most of the other things I am currently doing, will have to remain incognito for now....