Sunny and mild: I had to be outside. Since my gardening blitz in the summer all sorts of things I don't recognise have pushed their way through the soil. As have tomatoes and squash which must have come from the compost. An even greater number of things that I do know as invasive and fast-spreading have also reappeared and the summer tidying is well on the way to being undone. So today I sought out the leaves of ground elder that have sprung from bits of root left behind and had another go at them. And I continued the unfinished work of laying a brick edging between the 'lawn' (grass, dead moss, ground elder, daisies and dandelions) and the 'flower' beds.

Meanwhile B trimmed the box hedge by the pavement that was becoming a menace to buggy-pushers and blind people. He called me to look at some vibrant translucent purple berries that neither of us had ever seen before. Perhaps, I thought, they grow after a very dry summer when the plant feels threatened. So I looked them up. 

Well! Turns out after 26 years that our box hedge isn't box. It's lonicera nitida. So much for my fantasy of harvesting it in retirement and taking up wood engraving.