We’ve been having the most amazing autumn days: cloudless, sunny days followed by evenings in front of the wood burning stove. This October we have had one day of normal rain and one downpour – otherwise not a drop in sight, we are even having to do some watering! Not that we’ve had much time to relax and enjoy it. Richard had a week back home on the Isle of Man (which saw me mainly weeding) and then the following weekend yet more guests, this time old friends from London. They left a week ago and since then we have been non-stop both in the house and in the garden, results of our labour to be illustrated soon.

The chickens meanwhile are growing very well both in size and confidence, they have found a way to get into the veg patch and want to try and get in there a lot despite a huge amount of land on their side of the fence. I think they have their eyes on the newly planted onions… full update to follow shortly. The beautiful dawns are one of the good points about getting up early to let the chicks out. Here’s a vid of them at eight weeks old: