Today was another one of those 'pick your preferred weather' days with a range of options on display. I dug over the corn bed to remove the fine crop of stinging nettles and planted seeds in the places where the corn had succumbed to a combination of frost, my weeding, cats using the bed as a toilet, dog rolling on the nice warm soft turned earth and various other challenges faced by anything in my garden. And popped bean seeds in beside the corn that is actually growing. Then mulched the lot with straw on the principle that corn and beans are big seeds so a little mulch should not slow them down, but will keep the soil nice and moist for them.

Then I pulled the weeds from around a tree I had overlooked on my first purge of the orchard (the grass was so tall I did not spot the mesh, let along the tree) and had a little sit down. There were two hours to fill before the library opened, so I read for a bit (failing to finish the last book so I have renewed its borrowing) and then felt inspired to dig around in the front room to unearth the two doors (those doors I need to install in the bathroom and laundry - remember them?) and primed their edges, cut rebates for hinges, primed one end and one edge of those and the door frames and the little narrow bit of wood that becomes the door stop, trimmed that to length with a mitred corner and tacked these into position. Then realised that the end I had primed had become the top of the door as a result of the positions I had placed the hinges in and so now need to prime the other end as well. Oh well.

There was a little email traffic at mine last night also - firstly I decided I really should let Wayne know what the programme was for this year's work (sorry Wayne) and what needed to be done before Christmas (placing the order for the wood to be delivered after Christmas) and what was on the list for next year (that sounds so far away but is only three weeks or so .....). Happily that seems to be on track and Wayne is coming up next Friday to give me a hand moving the stacks of timber that are presently blocking manouevring room for the caravan - so it will be possible to get rid of that some time soonish as well. Anyone at a loose end is more than welcome to join us, lol. I will be baking so food will be available.

And I also had an email from one of you - you know who you are - tipping me off to three free cockerals on ALS - so they are coming home to my freezer in the near future I hope.

Speaking of cockerals, I am still of two minds regarding the gender of my chicken - stance, size and comb development shout rooster. Feather shape says hen. And if, as seems to be the case, he is of Welsummer extraction, the upright tail could indicate either way - as could the well-developed chest (the hens both look as if they need a good bra). So the jury is still out in that department. See if you can tell me what I have ...