I've given up, everything's gone to pot...

No I'm not going to pass comment on the rush to confession by the cabinet. I'm going to start with something even more boring than that: - yesterday's weather all but destroyed the last of what's been achieved in the garden this year, thereby finishing off the work of the slugs. Yes, that whiz bang opening was The Weather

What hasn't been washed away has been shredded by gusting high winds. Sunflowers have been snapped and the tomato plants haven't set. Only two plants, one of them the magnificent climbing rose on the north-east wall are looking even nearly as good as I would wish. The other roses have struggled but they're probably not quite in the right position. Someone suggested this is the right time of the year to relocate the strawberry bed but the weather's been so bad I haven't got myself prepared to do that.

The bug quotient is down. The last couple of nights there have been NO moths in the bathroom after dark and last year I saw nothing outside the window attracted by the light. Where are they all?

His Lordship who is a slave to the dread nicotine and spends his evenings outdoors quaffing (cider) and puffing while simultaneously reading and listening to R4 (who says man can't multitask?) swears we have a bat living in the garden. Certainly the Victoria Plum has been plentiful (fruit wise) this year. So maybe.

Our hedgehog has not reappeared this summer though we were convinced she was breeding last year. Shame given the quantity of slugs we've had and she certainly would have beneficial from that point of view, even if our rubbish bags do tend to suffer when she's about.

Anyway I've surrendered to this pathetic excuse of a summer and I've got to page 187 of HP & TDH. Can't believe I'm reading the final instalment. Hopefully the 'wand' joke and such risque stuff will sail clear over the 10yr old's head. I'm only sorry I've allowed myself to be diverted into re watching old series of 24 over the past two weeks or so when I really should have been re reading the books by way of preparation.