Hours fly past these days. I'm still waiting for those retirement days when I can just laze about and casually pick up a book with a chaser of coffee & a choccie biscuit on the side. Or even switch on a bit of inane daytime tv and chillax.

I have so much to do - I even have to cancel coffee dates with friends!

No time.

Well:

1) I have to cope with wee Hector-the-pup, and Hebe-the-dog, now in season. That's fun & games, I can tell you - but another time;

2) I have had a lot of visitors staying over;

3) I have also papered the chimney wall with a subtle green William Morris-type wallpaper;

4) I'm working on a ideas for a new pastel diptych - something to do with nature and the changing seasons;

5) And it IS September - foraging time.

Some berries have been quite disappointing. Perhaps July was just too wet and sunless for the blaeberries & elderberries to ripen fully? They certainly taste rather bitter this year. Fortunately the blackberries have benefitted from the late sunshine, and those on sheltered sunny banks are getting quite juicy. Hawthorn berries & rosehips look like a good bet for this year too.

It's a shame about the blaeberries & elderberries, because I gathered a glut of them last year. Never mind, my Hedgerow Jelly will just have a different flavour this year - heavy on the blackberries, hips & haws, and light on the blaeberries & elderberries!

You have to go with the flow sometimes. Nature makes her own decisions.

6) So I still have to gather more berries for jams & jellies;

7) I still have to add a sugar syrup to my homemade Chambord, and filter & bottle it for Christmas;

8) I still need to plant some spring bulbs and winter pansies.

My cottage garden is looking drab at the moment. Some of the annuals have made a half-hearted, sparce attempt at a second flowering, but at least, my everlasting sweetpeas have, at last, flowered in a full range of violet and fuschia pink! Other perennials just gave up in the days of lashing wind & rain. And the leaves are on the turn.

Autumn is definitely here.

The blueberry bushes I planted are on their second year, but although they have a fantastic crop of berries, sadly, they are never able to turn properly black. Is it too far north for them? Is my garden too sunken for them to catch enough of the now lower rays of the sun? Some blueberries are trying to darken but most are still sickly green/white pearls. I think I will have to dispense with them next year and plant blackcurrants instead. More reliable. In my courtyard garden, fruit bushes have to earn their keep! Worry not, I shall replant them in the countryside. Somewhere in full sun. I can always try to harvest them in their new spot. That's how we do things in the north!

9) The ivy needs trimming back - again!

10) The new fence needs painting;

11) etc. (A large unknown category.)

Not that I'm moaning, you understand. I love all of it! I enjoy being busy.

Where's the fun in pulling on a heavy blanket hoodie & pushing my feet into a giant double foot muff? Cosy as that might be. Snuggled up on the couch in front of a crackling log fire.

I may be retired but I've no time to hibernate! That's surely for people older than me? I've too much to do. In fact, this musing is keeping me back! See ya later!

: )