Scrappy August

 August always feels a little 'scrappy' to me. It's like it doesn't know what it wants to be. The calendar suggests it is the peak month of Summer, and yet Autumn feels just around the bend. Is August hanging on to that Summer vibe or is it giving up and cruising into Autumn because it can't be bothered to do anything else? The garden begins to lose its polished air and everything is looking a bit, well, frayed around the edges. I've never been a great fan of August. I am already itching to feel the change into Autumn especially as I have the start of my Diploma course to look forward to. 

However, look at these little beauties! 

Livingstone daisies, or as I have always known them, mesembryanthemums. They open up in the sun and close down with the fading light. I grew them from seed and they've been a joy but they are beginning to look, well, scrappy. The geraniums are doing well, though, and should continue to do so far into Autumn. As will the cosmos. I was late potting these up and am glad I was for their offering of a spot of late Summer cheerfulness. I have noticed, though, that a few of the Sweet Williams I sowed last week are beginning to nudge above the compost. And I need to pot on the winter flowering pansies. 

When Lord Malarkey and I went out for our anniversary dinner on Wednesday, I found this in the pub car park...

At first I thought it was real and had a moment of confusion wondering how a teeny tiny crab could have found its way to a place that is at least an hour's travel from the  nearest coastline. Gull Airways? We do have gulls coming inland, especially when a bit of ploughing has been going on. And then I thought, perhaps it escaped from the fresh fish delivery van that sets up shop in the pub car park every Thursday. Made a brave bid for freedom by flinging itself from the van and scuttling away on its little crabby legs. And then I thought, but it's a VERY tiny crab, do fishmongers sell crabs that small? Aren't there fishing rules about that sort of thing?? And then sanity took a grip and I picked up the crab which was, of course, a tiny plastic toy. I put it in my bag because it seemed like it wanted me to take it home. Weird.  

Today, I am pleased to say, the little oven has been repaired and we are now oven-a-go-go. I have resolutely refused to use the Aga ovens in the last three weeks on account of not wanting to boil in the prolonged heat it generates, so we've been living off hob-cooked meals. I have missed jacket potatoes and I have missed cake. And roasted vegetables. But our fabulous domestic appliance engineer, Chris, arrived with the new circuit board and it was out with the old and in with the new, and that's another job ticked off the list. Now it's just the boiler that needs servicing and we are having a new Hive controller fitted at the same time because even after six years the boiler control panel in the laundry still confuses me and I am assured by those in the know that a Hive controller, which can be managed from my phone, will make things a whole lot easier.

Then my car needs taxing, Andy's car needs insuring, I shall renew my membership of the Butterfly Conservation Trust and breath a sigh of relief that September has no 'need to' jobs AT ALL. 

Still waiting for a biopsy appointment, though...