Clean up

When the leylandii was chopped down, it left a million of these acorns (?) scattered everywhere. In the interests of not having a million leylandii to deal with in a few years, today I asked the kids to start clearing them up. Amazingly they agreed without requiring specificity on the amount of payment to be made. Really it was just a ruse on my part to get them outside. The kids are normally very outdoorsy types, but the past week has seen them glued to screens. I have TallGirl exercising a neighbour's dog (the dog doesn't need it - the neighbour is doing it as a favour to me so that TallGirl gets some exercise (shhh don't tell her...)

Today was sooooo much cooler than it has been lately, so much so that we could open the windows this morning to let cool air come in: quite a treat at this time of year (and yes, you have my permission to remind me of that, and of all the money we're spending on a shed, this winter when I'm moaning about how cold it is and how we have no heating...

Into school briefly today, past the annoying yappy dogs who have moved in next door, to write a few cheques. More to sort out tomorrow - there's only so much chaos I can take in one go.

TallGirl has got over the pea injury I realise I forgot to document yesterday (pea up wrong end of nose at dinner - not that there's a right end of a nose, pea-wise). And I realised I don't really know how Facebook works. I can't decide whether to be bothered about this or not.

Also in shot above are my* steel toe-capped wellies, doing sterling service at keeping the 'wee bastards' off me. The 'aoutats' or chiggers (US) or (?) harvest mites are a real pest any time from mid-July to about October in our garden. The only way to beat them is to stop them getting on your skin: decent boots, and changing your clothes and washing thoroughly (body and clothes) after any exposure in vegetation higher than boot height. I do feel a bit foolish clomping down the perfectly dry garden in 2 kilo wellies for a couple of tomatoes for lunch, but it's better than spending three months scratching your nethers (their favourite chomping ground!)

*Mr B's really. I will at some point invest in some normal wellies and let him have his building site ones back, but in the meantime the extra weight is doing my calf muscle tone the world of good.