Plot and house update

Busy week at work so not much done elsewhere. Went to the plot in the evening where OH harvested another 3 pounds of raspberries -- I'd been worried about our rasp harvest but really needn't have been. They were just a little late this year.

Also got another 2 zumpkins off our plants and will leave one to form a marrow/pumpkin that will eventually grow a bright orange and will look lovely on the wooden floor in our patio window. The other proper pumpkins are really loving the good weather and are busy creeping around and are throwing out flowers. Let's hope the nights don't get too cold so that our insects, bees esp., are still flying and pollinating. Something is certainly flying around at dusk because I managed to inhale it -- it felt like a small moth -- and spent the rest of the evening and this morning trying to cough it back up.

Elsewhere on the plot it's mainly pulling old plants out and composting them, and weeding. It was getting dark much more quickly now than only a couple of weeks ago so we did our thing on the plot and tootled off home for a defrosted home-made tomato-spinach quiche and a glass of raspberry cider.

On our way back -- it was dark by then and the streetlights were on -- we bumped into Mr Tubby, who was patrolling his patch between our house and his new/old house four doors down. OH had had a conversation with the family -- turns out their dog had died a few weeks ago, which explains why Mr Tubby is now drawn back to his old haunt. A part of me really misses him, and when he wanders into our house with us to wolf down a tin of Sheba before disappearing again, he never escapes a proper cuddle. But another part of me is also thanking Fate that this walking sack of poo and pee is now taking his wares back down the road, to another garden.

In the house, the various paint jobs are coming along fine -- the black gloss painting in the hallway is nearly done, the big radiator there needs a yellow coat to fit in with the wall and I need to do various touch-ups here and there. In the living room, the plaster over the fireplace has dried off and OH has painted the chimney breast in herringbone grey, a colour that seems to change according to the light from dark olive to slate. It completely changes the room and really draws the eye to the fireplace, which is what we wanted. OH is keen to put one of my paintings above the stove, a Turneresque autumn sunset in acrylic that uses a warm but also distinctly apocalyptic Breughel colour scheme. I painted it two years ago -- have not managed to complete very much else since, so I'm very proud of getting this one to a stage where it can actually be displayed.

Now that everything in the living room is coming together so well, I've prodded OH to take us rug shopping in the county over the weekend. There's a place I know that sold me a gorgeous antique rug for my study, and I feel another splurge coming on. Really want to get this room ready and warm for winter.

And finally, if I get round to it, I'm looking to whip the belt sander out when my neighbour is away, and take it to the staircase and landings. Very noisy stuff but always fun to do (provided the sander doesn't break down, or I discover that I have bought the wrong-size belt...).