Autumn has begun

And not in any subtle way either, weeks of gorgeous warm sunshine gave way last night to ferocious cold, storms. The wind did some damage to my bean pole arrangements, but nothing to the plants, and crucially for me, the greenhouse survived intact. Amazing really.

It will soon be time to make chutney from those last few tomatoes that refuse to ripen. We have about a dozen ripening on the vine and perhaps 4 dozen that don't look like they will. I'm a little disappointed with yield this year, but perhaps that's just because I've been taking them as they ripened so haven't really seen a bountiful quantity in one place. More plants will be grown next year, and more varieties. More on this in another entry, it's turned into quite a big subject for me (a huge excuse for surfing seed catalogues).



Cleaning up in the greenhouse today I found this fine example of Nuctenea umbratica (Walnut Orb Spider) hiding under my seed trays. Very large (about 4cm from front leg tip to bum) but very, very quiet and I don't think it meant me any harm, which is just as well really, as it can do some. (Warning: Not safe for arachnophobes!)



We've also got quite a nice garden spider residing in the greenhouse. This one's a bit more active, but we coexist quite happily.


I emptied my long dead Savoy seedlings into the compost bin, and put the empty trays back on top of the spider, who hadn't moved. Hopefully I was gentle enough to allow him/her to get comfy again (they were empty and very light.)