Today was not the day to be a top heavy, shallow rooted, annual.

To prevent the almost inevitable toppling of the sunflower forest and the consequent squashing of the less stout souls below, my first job this morning was to dig up the giants.  First I had to remove the extensive corsetry that was valiantly attempting to hold them in place, although they were already at a jaunty angle.  All it took was a quick nudge from a fork beneath and we had a controlled felling.  I then passed them over to Lady Mantle who cut off the worthy flowers which she lined out on a low wall.

It may have come to your attention that it was a tad breezy today, and has not yet relented.  I sincerely hope that the howling and crashing coming from outside is the wind and not an early Halloween visitation.  For all the weather’s vigour it was pleasantly balmy and, after the sun shook off the Saharan dust, it was bright and blue skied.  This made for unexpectedly good working conditions.  Of course everything had to weighted down and throwing weeds into a trug was a miss and miss affair.  Later I chased the cut sunflowers around the garden, scooping them up and taking them into the house.  Lady M. had been diverted.

The journey back was scattered with twigs and small branches and the odd young tree that had been battered just a little more than it could cope with.   I was glad to get home.

I hope you stayed safe and damage free.

A combination of bad weather and feeling a little below par meant that I didn’t work today.  Instead I sat at home sorting out my photos.  Perhaps a little sorry for myself, periodically watching the wind and rain wallop my plants outside.

In the olden days the job of photo-sorting would have entailed sitting on the floor shifting through reams of prints and negatives.  We still have storage boxes containing ancient pictures from across the years. Occasionally I will delve into these museums and wonder at my youth and waist size.  Not often enough though.  It is good to remember.

Nowadays it means sitting at the computer and trawling though virtual files.  And blimey, don’t I take a lot of pictures.  The increase in shots since the devil digital arrived is not tenfold, but perhaps a thousand fold, or maybe ten thousand fold, and they need to be culled and named and archived.  Being the efficient librarian that I am, this job hasn’t been done for two years.

I may be some time.

I spotted these little snails sheltering beneath a fennel leaf.  A fragrant umbrella, how sensible.