Sky 38 and my penultimate intervals

Another dramatic but not colourful sky last night.

We stood awhile watching the horses munching and the bats flitting to and fro.

The nights are really drawing in quickly now and there always seems to be a sense of urgency at this time of year to get things done before the winter takes hold.

Last night I finished my crochet granny blanket and all that's left to do is block it.

It's certainly going to be warm and snuggly as the yarns are all pure new wool with alpaca in some of them.

It's a great way of using up odd balls of yarn leftover from other projects.

My intervals today were 5 x 1K with 400m recoveries inbetween. I managed them all at 7mph and felt fine afterwards so I must have been doing something right in the last few weeks. I have another session scheduled early next week which I may or may not do depending upon how I'm feeling.


It was a glorious autumn morning earlier. All misty, with water droplets on the numerous spiders' webs which shone like diamonds in the watery sunshine.

This stunning Euonymus Alatus has been growing in a pot for years now, just waiting for the moment when I can plant him out in his permanent place. His time has come!

I love this shrub in every season - in Spring it has pretty white flowers, in Summer the winged fruits develop, in Autumn the leaves put on this beautiful show and in Winter the leaves fall to reveal the most beautiful bark.

There are so many spiders webs around at the moment. Apparently the combination of a dry spring and a wet summer has created a real abundance of spiders this year. It's been estimated that there could be in excess of 2 million spiders in an acre of rough grassland in autumn.

My research hasn't stretched to counting them, but going by the number of webs that can be seen at the moment it must be a pretty good guess!


This afternoon Esther and Kizzy are helping to mow the grass in the orchard! Their efforts serve a dual purpose - they are more environmentally friendly than a strimmer and the way they graze helps to aerate the soil.

I'm trying to reduce the fertility of the grass to allow more wild flowers to grow there and it seems to be working. I could, of course, just introduce some yellow rattle which I will be doing later this year. But the ladies increase the success rate of this parasitic plant by munching the grass down.