The temperature is dropping - though the days can still be warm, the nights are longer and chilly now, and the leaves are falling fast.  This hasn't been a good year for conkers - normally we put a bucket outside with a notice for children visiting the railway to help themselves.  But this year there are very few indeed, though plenty of empty cases, which makes me wonder if the squirrels that moved into the horse chestnut branches this year have been, well, squirrelling them away against the scarcity of winter. They are grey squirrels of course, not the red variety made famous in Beatrix Potter's Squirrel Nutkin, but their antics are still very entertaining to watch.

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The clocks will go back at the end of the month, and it's possible we will have experienced the first frost of winter before then, though St Luke's Day on the eighteenth is often said to herald "St Luke's little summer," a few days of late, fine weather.  This is a busy time in the garden as we put away tender plants (the Engineer is busy filling his greenhouse with geranium cuttings) and clear all the summer bedding.  The chickens are moulting now although to me this seems a very silly time of year to lose your feathers, just as it's starting to grow cold!

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I will be sending out the last of the Pear Pin Cushion pre-orders this weekend and restocking the Bustle & Sew Etsy shop ready for Christmas (they will make great little gifts for stitchers).    Dispatch times will be a lot faster now too as I have plenty made up in stock.

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