The Good and the Bad...

Another day of sunny but chilly weather, and once again we spent most of it working in the garden. We didn't even get out for a walk today!
Flowers in pots were planted in the earth where maybe they'll survive the winter and come around again next year (or maybe not). I added a gutter to Betty's new veranda. Quite a lot of the general tidying up was done, wood stacked under cover for the winter, and some of the tools I used in the work on Betty's are now put away.
Jan was also busy the whole day, but I guess she'll write about that.
At this time of year working outside is always a bit of a race. First it's a race against the coming winter. Soon the earth will freeze hard and it will be impossible to plant anything, or dig the soil. In any pots with earth in the wet soil will break the pot as it freezes. Everything needs to be away before the snow comes, otherwise it's likely to get lost under the white cover.
The second race is more short term. It's the daily race with darkness. We get used to working as long as we want in the summer, when it never gets dark. Now it gets dark, and early too. However, there is also something lovely about working outside as it gets darker and darker. Eventually you reach a time when you know anyone inside, in the light, would consider it dark outside. But for us outside it is still just light enough to do some jobs. Our eyes have been adjusting and as long as we stay away from lights we can spend a little longer working, get one more jobe completed.  
Eventually though we have to give up, and admit that it really is dark, and we have to stop! It was at that moment I took this photo, at 18:40 this evening.
A less pleasant side of autumn is that the mice, who have happily lived outside all summer, start to look for somewhere warm and dry to spend the winter. Unfortunately some of them find their way into our house, so every autumn there's a short period where we have to trap the offending rodents. Eventually they find alternatives and stop coming, which is best for all concerned!  We could call in the professionals but they'll use poison, and if I was a mouse I'd rather a swift death in a trap than a very uncomfortable and slow death, so I continue putting the traps down and removing the small bodies. As I was writing this I had to break off, to remove another dead mouse.
I sometimes finish my blip; "We do live in a lovely place", and it's very true. But there are some downsides too, and the autumn cull of rodents is one of those.