<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Saltburn-pieroct19.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5854" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Saltburn-pieroct19-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>A couple of days in not so sunny Darlington and I was taken for a trip to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltburn-by-the-Sea" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Saltburn</a>. I've never been to this north east seaside resort. It has all the trappings of a Victorian seaside leisure town and is largely unchanged from the original setting apart from the large Sainsbury's nestling beside the railway station.
The tide was out, there was a chill wind but it didn't stop a group of women running into the sea. British madness does exist outside of Parliament.
<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Bees-with-yellow-pollenoct19.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5853" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Bees-with-yellow-pollenoct19-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>In the rare moments of warm sunshine at this time of year the bees are out and about foraging for nectar and pollen. The nectar is being collected for feeding the workers and queen during the winter months when it's too cold for them to come out. The yellow pollen in their leg sacks will be stored over winter and fed to the young bee larvae that will emerge some time in the spring. They were so intent on bringing in their "gold" they kept flying into me as I crouched down on their flight path into the hive.
<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/caterpillaroct19.jpg"><img class="alignright size-medium wp-image-5851" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/caterpillaroct19-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>While digging around one of the raised beds I came across this character perambulating over the leaves.

It is apparently a Pale Tussock moth caterpillar and usually found in the south of England. Are some moths also moving north as a consequence of climate change?

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<a href="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/raised-bed-problemoct19.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5852" src="http://pigyard.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/raised-bed-problemoct19-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>I'm out in the garden having decided to move the geraniums from the trough at the front to the raised bed by the back door. I started digging out the soil in the bed to make room and what do I find? The wooden sleeper on the end is loose and rotten. The nails that were holding it in place are doing nothing. I have to put aside my spade and trowel and start drilling holes, finding very large screws and try to fix it. Despite screwing it together it still moves a bit probably because the sleeper has started to rot. I thought sleepers were pressure treated to last 25 years. I think the builders were cutting corners on the landscaping.

After putting everything back together I did have time to move the geraniums and plant 50+ pansies in their place. I'm looking forward to a late show of flowers that will, allegedly, last through until the spring.