Anybody else glad it's Autumn?

We've just lit the woodburner for the first time this autumn. I always try to hold out as far into October as possible but it's sooooooooo cosy once the evenings start drawing in.

Storms beginning in the South Atlantic. The strongest hurricane for a decade whooshing towards the Caribbean.

Wobbly bits are you in Suffolk I m just up the road from Dunwich

I have fallen out of love with feeding birds. We have a lovely grape vine covered pergola close to the house and not far from the bird feeder.

In previous years we have had up to 50lbs of grapes off the vine. This year 3lbs. No lack of grapes, You can see the stalks of all the bunches of grapes that there were. It is just that the birds were eating them and as they will eat the grapes before they are really ripe enough for us. I was faced between picking all the grapes, unripe and inedible, or being beaten to them by the birds.

The problem is, that if I move the bird table, we cannot see it from the kitchen or living room, which rather defeats the purpose of having the feeders.

Like you Hippywitch I love the snow, frost and cold, but over the last few years there has been very little of any of them in Oxfordshire. Last winter was completely snow free

Put some sunflower heads in the tree for the birds to oeck the seeds from, and yes, this morning a little mouse was perched on a twig having a sunflower seed breakfast.I left it to it.?

Oh bring on winter love snow, we often get snowed in so no work yipee love frost have to say given how much rain Cumbria get i even love rain. Dark cosy nights lovely warming comfort food.????

DH was only saying on Sunday that we have never seen a squirrel all the time we've lived here - after reading the above I'm very thankful we don't have them!

Lovely day today on Dunwich heath overlooking the sea, warm & sunny.

Nono - far too cold already. I need the sun and the heat

The animal to beware of is squirrels. Some got into our roof and ate through the burglar alarm wires at 2.00am. Fortunately the alarm only went off indoors so we had to sit in the kitchen with cushions over our ears for an hour and a half before the emergency repair man arrived to turn it off.

We couldn't see how they were getting into our roof, but our house is over 500 years old and was once part of the house next door, so I struggled into the loft area next to their house and discovered that there was no party wall and the squirrels were getting in through their roof. I also discovered that the little varmints had eaten the protective plastic coating off two metres of one of the electricity cables so we had to get an electrician pdq to replace it.

Installing a party wall was more complicated as we needed listed building consent, but the conservation officer agreed the lack of the party wall was a fire and security issue and gave us the go ahead very quickly.

But she weighs 41 kg

Every autumn and winter I get rats in the loft, scratching and scurrying. I have two electronic things up there so I don't think they stay long. I will not use poison. I worry they'll chew the electric wiring. I'd put my lurcher up there if I could lift her; she'd soon see them off!!

We were surprised by the lack of smell, but assumed that it was because it was winter and, although the house is well insulated, we do not leave the heating on and it was just too cold for them to decay.

We had a similar problem in England, the mice were in the walls of the house and voids of a flat roof and we ended up twice being unable to use the living room for a fortnight because they all obviously chose to die in the living room walls and roof void.

Our heating came on for a while yesterday morning, but we are currently having the outside of the house decorated so all the windows and doors are wide open from 9.00am to 10.00 at night. We both wear fleeces in the evening.

Decidedly chillier today. Must get DH to run the heating and bleed any radiators. Anyone got their heating on yet? We haven't as the evenings still OK.

Our cat is working overtime at the moment. Dead bodies on the doorstep every morning!

Keep up the good work, Jazz!

Get a terrier - he spends hours watching holes in the greenhouse and shed and garden. Keeps him amused for ages, except he will try to dig his way in if he can

to MOnicaI'm surprised if you didn't get knocked out by the smell too.
We once went away for 3 weeks in October and on return the smell of mice was ....
I'm another person who loves Autumn , it's always been my favourite season. At our time of life, and living here, it marks the point where hopefully things stop growing, no more grass cutting or weeding etc. We're in the middle of the big clearup in the garden, then might get a rest.

Last winter we thought we had a mouse in our house in France. Before we left after our visit we put down what the French wonderfully call souricide (souris is the french for mouse).

When we returned we found 8 dead mice scattered around the house, whether the one had bred or we had failed to realise there was more than one I am not sure.

Mice!!

It's that time of the year when the little buggers leave the fields after harvest and start start scrabbling about anywhere and everywhere.

Thanks Bbnan. I am glad to hear that. Don't like early Christmas stuff in shops here as others have said, but somehow a Christmas shop in June is pleasingly eccentric. Enjoy your trip!

Tree wasp!! Apparently makes a large nest in trunk. Just a hole to be seen though. It's about the size of ordinary wasps just more elongated. Must have powerful jaws!

Daffodils - phone thinks it knows better!

There is a dead tree in the middle of my new shrub bed which I use to support my climbing rose Paul Himalayan Musk.
Yesterday I was nose down planting duffs amongst my newly planted shrubs and noticed sawdust floating down. Stood quietly watching and could see an insect pushing it out of a hole in the trunk. I waited and eventually a wasp like insect flew out - must look it up! I think there are miner wasps not sure.

Purple doll yes it is.....tempeture has picked up and we saw some moose cooling off in the lake. Moved on to Edmonton now and it is 26deg today....strange trip with all this weather changing. Have loved every second of seeing our precious 14 month grandaughter lots of babysitting. It will be hard to say goodbye but we will see her in 9 weeks as they will be coming home for 6 weeks.

No, not having a good change of season so far, and somewhat depressed by the far too early Christmas stuff in the shops.

Am I wrong in thinking that when I was a child, you didn't see Christmas things until November?

Bah humbug of North Devon.

PS Autumn is ok if it is reasonably sunny, and dry, don't mind if it's cold and frosty, but grey skies and rain, no thanks.