Anybody else glad it's Autumn?

But she weighs 41 kg

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.

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

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

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!

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.????

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.?

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

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

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

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.