Complimentary baubles? Well I know where you can buy some. I went with Judith and her mum to the lovely (but pricey) new garden centre in Limoges this morning to find the entire centre section converted to a garish Christmas heaven. It’s the beginning of October for heavens sake. I don’t even want to start thinking about Christmas until about two weeks beforehand when admittedly I do get carried away with large pine trees and sparkly lights. In fact last year had anyone suffered from epilepsy and driven past our house I think they would have gone immediately in status epilepticus on passing the funky lcd flashing lightshow on display in the trunk of the ancient wisteria outside. You could see it lighting up the road from about a 5km radius. Fantastic.

I have also been for my French lesson which has left me slightly brain addled, but my teacher is absolutely lovely. A bit too lovely I think as she has a five month old puppy who is a cross Labrador/Beauceron that is so completely unruly it makes Tess seem like a Kennel Club obedience champion, and she seems at the end of her wits with it.

When I arrived this morning there was a dog bed and what looked like several magazines shredded under the table, and when I lent her my “So your dog’s not Lassie” book she almost wept with relief. This dog training lark is a bit of a nightmare at times. I am a great believer that it is all common sense, but Tess has left us totally exasperated at times and even now at approaching a year old she still isn’t perfectly trained but a work in progress.

So that I can have a quiet lesson I take Tess along and then she and teachers pet race round the garden like mad things. As I left today teacher was surveying the damage (not from Tess thankfully) but of holes dug, plants destroyed and edging strips scattered around the garden. You could see on her face this was not the dream of dog ownership she had had. Even Tess is grateful to get away after an hour and a half.

I have spent a good part of the last week sanding the garden furniture and looking at the pool, finally coming to terms with the fact that Summer is indeed over and that I need to take it down. Mind you there was a freaky wind storm the other day which scattered my greenhouse and hundreds of pots around the garden. Very weird. I hadn’t even noticed it in the house. I was far too busy inside thinking - Yuk - looks crap out there - must light the fire and get the mulled wine on!!

The chickens are all moulting and look a right ragged lot. Reg has been behaving himself and staying in the run of late. Perhaps he feels that in his present de-feathered state he would be laughed at. Whatever you say about Reg though he is a fertile beast and yet another friends hen is sitting on more of his offspring to be.

The current brood are growing rapidly and I am trying desperately not to get attached and call them names. Mind you a friend of ours has just had a nightmare experience trying to despatch one of her brood so this meat production may come to a rapid end and we will be over run with chickens before we know it if we have a similar experience. Neil seems confident he can do the deed having had to dispatch a blind chick at about two days old. I am not so sure. We will see.