Tools of the trade

More log-splitting today - this time relatively fresh logs so they won't be so good for this winter, though at a pinch they'll work if I run out of the good wood.
We woke this morning to a world white with frost after a night with temperatures down to -5°C. The horse chestnut and the sunflowers reacted by dropping their leaves and the other flowers seem to have given up the ghost.
We also had a meeting in our garden between the plumbers, the water company and ourselves. The plan was to turn off the water main, which would have turned off the water to Betty's, the Red House, and our house. This would enable the plumber to change the valve/tap that turns off all the water in the Red House. Unfortunately the water company man couldn't find the main. He wandered around with a metal detector and got very hopeful at one point. He dug just there, but he'd found a hatch to the drains instead. In the end they gave up because the plumber thought of an alternative solution.
This evening I lit the stove and we relaxed in the lovely dry warmth as it went dark outside. I was feeling a little idle so when Jan went out to meet her bookbinding friends I sat down and binged three episodes of Peaky Blinders. That's virtually the first TV I've watched since summer started, and it's probably a sign winter is coming!
Jan is blipping the bare chestnut tree, so I've put in an extra showing how it looked just two days ago, still very leafy!