Minus 3 degrees last night was a bit brutal for the tomato plants, despite the presence of a frost blanket. As you can see all the tips are well and truly pruned and blackened Still, the core of the plants seems fine so it will be a matter of waiting and seeing what longterm impact the frost has had.

At least the garage man turned up last night with the air pump and it was good to know that the tyres were still holding 27psi. I realised when i picked up the paperwork for towing that is exactly a year on Monday coming since the poor thing was parked in its present location, so the tyres have held up well.

The plumber turned up but was unable to fit the new pump as it is the wrong size, so I am no further forward in that department. I have emailed the suppliers and will return the replacement pump on Monday when I am down in Hobart visiting ... the dentist. As another tooth has started to fall apart, sigh. Still, at least it had the decency to wait till I had some money to pay for treatment. The plumber was sent off with Alan's tapestry, a dozen eggs and a belly full of chocolate cake to make up for his wasted journey, and then I shifted some rocks that are in the way of manoeuvring space for the caravan. And did some washing, and ruefully inspected my veges, and gleefully inspected the hives as it seems the weak hive has recovered in a major way - a whole mob of bees coming and going in similar quanties to those in the neighbouring hive. So that is good news. It will be interesting to see inside come Thursday.

Forgot to mention: I gave the chainsaw a workout and cut up the remaining larger lumps of wood and dropped in to order some wood to be delivered some time in the next couple of weeks, phew. It will be nice to have a goodly supply laid up for winter.