The chilly weather was boosted further by galeforce winds that howled around the house for much of the night. The power cut before bedtime, I managed. The one during the night of course foiled my alarm-setting and the clock was merrily flashing at me when I awoke to full daylight. The reason I had the alarm on was that I had planned to be up and about by six and with a nice cool night that was not a safe bet as I fell deeply asleep.

So the start of the day was a bit hurried, but i was only half an hour late into the garden and could have been there earlier if I had been willing to rush. We rebuilt the compost heap and harvested the rich deposit at the bottom of the bin, using it to fill up another garden bed ready for planting. This one will be some winter root veges. The harvest was mainly tomatoes today but there are some broccoli heads ready to pick so I plan to collect those tomorrow when I go to clean the cottages. I will make a nice broccoli and blue cheese flan for tomorrow night's dinner. I think I will also pinch off the flower heads that are still optimistically forming on the tomatoes, so that the already abundant crop gets the best growth opportunity, but when I am in there with Syche I find that I am not comfortable spending time on my own plants.

Home to witness the arrival of yet another horse next door (that makes five, including the mare who alleged to be pregnant but I suspect she isn't) who is settling in with no fuss in the paddock immediately adjacent the stallion. She seems a nice creature but looks more like a thoroughbred than a quarterhorse to me.

The dogs and cats have had their exercise for the day and Shadow is fast asleep on the floor beside me (Seb is on the bed). With a full moon tonight I suspect this will not last long.