I forgot to mention yesterday that a place I have been keeping an eye on for some time was populated for the first time in months. It is a situation beside the lake which was once the site of a lovely old house which burned down several years ago. A few months back they knocked it over and left a huge pile of bricks that I have been yearning after ever since. So being the cheeky sort of sod that I am, I drove in and introduced myself and sought (and obtained) permission to scrounge some bricks. I have asked for two ute loads of two layers each. These should be sufficient, together with the slabs of sandstone I have, to pave the back terrace. So that is a bit of a bonus really!

Today I decided to succumb to temptation and go to Hobart ostensibly to get some hardware, but we all know my main motivation was to go to Pontville Quilters group and see Deb, my favourite shopkeeper.

So I set off fairly early (not having a clue when this group meets, but knowing it was a very short period of time compared to our lot) and went down the back way as my destination was K&D and Supercheap Autos, both of which are at Cambridge Park. Naturally there were still bags of fruit on sale down that road so I called in and collected another box of cherries (which may not last long enough to be brandied), then continued on my merry way. I was saved from more extravagence by the fact I didn't have any cash on me.

Why Supercheap Autos? Because i needed a battery charger. Not for the ute, but for the bees. You clip it onto the wire in the frames and it heats up the wires so the wax foundation sticks to them. It works too - that is what I have been doing this evening, along with scraping old wax off old frames and collecting it to melt down at some later date.

K&D was going well until someone came to serve me. They are elusive as heck when you don't want them, but this guy was so helpful and friendly that by the time I got rid of him, I had forgotten a vital item on my list. I picked up some punnets of seedlings while i was there as well. Not the savoy cabbages I was looking for, but some broccoli and some leek and brown onion sets. Luckily I had to go to Lindisfarne to drop off some stuff Barbara had left behind, so instead of calling in at her's I went to the local hardware, where Lucas works, and dropped the stuff off there, and purchased my last item as well.

Then I hied me to Pontville where Deb lived up to her infamous reputation and parted me with from my money with grace and charm as always. A layer cake of some nice old-fashioned fabrics and a set of four fat quarters of blues and whites for that blue and white quilt I will make some day when the place is not covered in sawdust (I refuse to start on it until I have a clean environment in which to work, but am collecting fabric as I go along so when I am ready to start I have the right sorts of lights, mediums and darks).

Homeward bound I called into the local newsagents for two spiral bound hard-cover notebooks - one for a bee diary the other for a garden diary) and went over to the Bargain Centre for a peek around. I found four lovely Fowlers bottles there, as well as a wire-framed lampshade. I am collecting these with a view to re-covering them to suit the decor of each room as I go along. In fact Jean gave me one the other day which is nice enough to hang in the hall, which I have done. While in town I was greeted with the news we are expecting snow. This seems highly unlikely, and the weather forecasters seem to have overlooked it on the forecast I have read, but you never know. We are certainly in for a cool spell which is a good thing for the seedlings i planted this evening.

Peter Cundall, on this morning's radio, was extolling the virtues of picking your tomatoes green and ripening them indoors. I may give it a go as I doubt any will ripen on the vines at the rate they are going.

I may even have to light the fire in the morning as it is already cooling off tonight. So much for summer then. And my wood merchant is still not back from his holiday where-ever he is, so I will need to keep a close eye on his place to make sure I get my wood in, in time.

So it sounds like tomorrow will be indoor activities. I may even make some progress on the woodbox, or at least get the doors hung on the cabinet I hung several weeks ago (or is it months?) Remember that one? - the doors had to be trimmed, which I did last time i had the tablesaw in action, but they then needed some iron-on cover strip which I have now bought. Along with a pack of those thingies that plug into holes and you rest the shelf on them (the last one of those from the flatpack had gone awol).