OK, now its acceptable to be autumn, I can cope with that. I had a day off today, well part of a day off, and we went to a National Trust property, and I now understand why many of our visitors come after the school holidays, the place was crawling with obnoxious children ( and the rest of this sentence has been censored by my sister!!!!) We had some somewhat bouncy children over the Bank Holiday, but at least if you mention politely (well sort of politely with only minor threats about feeding them to the Condor) they generally will behave.

The weather was not what I would have liked, but it did not rain, although it was pretty damn grey for much 0f the weekend, however we had some great customers and the raspberries from Jacob in the cafe vanished very quickly. It is now pouring with rain, but that does not matter as it is 6.30 and I am the right side of a large G+T!

Sedge, the new puppy has settled in well and the three remaining labs have nearly accepted him now. All the visitors still think he is a lab pup, but he will one day be a Patterdale Terrier, however I have to admit that he looks like a tiny lab right now. Lammerlaw, the African Fish Eagle is dying to eat him, but the other birds are accepting him as well.

My sister Dinah (the one who censored my thoughts!) has been here for a while and leaves at the end of this week, I will miss her company - and her cooking! Back to microwaved stuff again, oh well.

The school holidays will be over for everyone by the end of this week and then I hope we will have a golden autumn and lots of what is called the grey pound - my favourite visitors.