I don’t allow myself rest days. There are days when I don’t have anything in my diary and on those days I write a list of things that need to be done. This week I run the lawnmower over the lawns to pick up the leaves which have started to fall and swept the drive with Dave. This spruced up the look of the house for at least 24 hours until more leaves drift down.
I’m still managing to get myself sufficiently motivated to go for a cycle in the early mornings. I confess that I’m tending to put my head down and try to beat my best time (53 mins)(competitive? never) 
however I cannot fail to see the road kill – two badgers and a muntjac deer. One of the badgers keeps being dragged off the verge probably by a fox as it tries to rip the meat off it. So every day I pull it back onto the verge – it’s surprisingly heavy.
And the morning light is different every time I go out. Here we have “mists and mellow fruitfulness”. Thankfully it hasn’t been too cold although it was only 5 degrees C one day – a portent of what’s to come.
In the spring of last year I was thinking that I would abandon Jane’s vegetable plot, turf it over and concentrate on the flower beds. How I have changed. I get so much pleasure from the vegetable garden (a bit fed up with runner beans and courgettes for dinner). I’m not only planning what to grow next year I’ve already planted garlic and onion sets. As for the flower beds, they’ve been a bit neglected so I now need to change my focus and do some serious reorganisation. More thought required…
