My butt it overfloweth.

It's October and the long shadows cast over the plot around 4pm. The weather is still decent but things are changing.

You know how irritating it is when, for what ever reason, you have to spend even a few hours without running water. The chairman decided unilaterally and without notice that he would turn of the water at 10am last Saturday.

"There were frosts in Scotland last night" he said.

It was 26 degrees in Paris last night. What's his flipping point?

Harry politely disagreed saying that frosts were not due in October. Chairman said "Aaah well" in a way I imagine he thought conveyed some sage Jedi like understanding of the weather patterns of Western Europe that had some how escaped the Met Office and the Weather channel and shuffled off home.

"Yeah. Said Harry rolling his eyes. "I bet his water buts are full" and carried on digging. A quick investigation proved Harry correct. I can't tell you the langauge I used when I saw the chairman's water butts capped and so brimming with water that the ground beneath them was still damp from the over flow. I did scare birds from the trees and spooked a cat from the raspberry canes.

Our butts are full these two and another one is filling up from the shed roof gutter system. But that's not the point.

I am free from the petty tyrany of the small minded thanks to a bit of hose pipe and an old squash bottle.



It's a mark of my trusting nature that I half expected to be greeted by a frost on Sunday morning. I'm here to tell you that it was a lovely night, I spent a very large part of it drinking outside in the garden with some friends. We even had the hot tub on.

Never underestimate peoples ability to remind you how important they think they are.