The fire alarm went off twice last night. First it was just two beeps and investigation showed no cause. Then an hour later it was a group of beeps - still no cause and no repeat performances. I think I will put the cats in the ceiling if I can work out a way to keep Seb from climbing the ladder too.

Mushrooms and a visit by the dusky robins suggest that winter is around the corner, though day time temps remain in the high teens and twenties. It will be cooler tomorrow, so we will have to wait and see. I may cut some more firewood to tide me over the weekend when we have rain forecast along with wind and cooler weather.

The neighbour sprang a surprise on me today - the other neighbour that is (nothing would surprise me from the one on the other side). She is my alternate on cleaning the cottages and has been reporting in sick the last couple of days (great for my budget, not so great for my uni work). So today I popped over to see how she was getting along and to ask if she needed anything from in town, and she introduced me to her fiance. You may recall her husband died shortly before Christmas ..... The ring is a rather nice dark amethyst in a 'princess Di' setting with some chips around the exterior.

So all toddles along merrily in town for the time being. I will be taking the computer into town with me tomorrow when I clean the bank so I can download the rest of the stuff for this week. I forgot the dongle today so it was not possible. Still, I have lectures and readings to be getting on with and shall use them to while away the evening.