And so, Autumn is upon us — as someone with awful literary style might be tempted to write. I’ve been casting around for signs of mellow fruitfulness but unable to see through the mist. S’been OK so far; September was very mild though the temperature has certainly dipped and there were a few days when we were glad of the new radiator in our modern and desirable open-plan living area.
Did I mention that I installed the radiator myself? Hung it on the wall, ran all the pipework (proper soldered joints, doncha know), spliced it into the heating loop, flushed and inhibited the system. Amazingly: no leaks.
In other news: Lola has started school! She’s about to finish her second week of full-time school; prior to that, there was a week of half-time. She loves it. She is very lucky that her very good friend Isla is also going to St Philips (and also went to nursery). One tends to assume that the experience would have been less easy without that support. Though, obviously, one cannot be sure.
What else? Neve is a happy, adventurous, resilient young lady; babbling like a goodun’ but no words beyond the basics yet. We bought a new table for the kitchen — new to us, that is: it’s a regency table in three sections, veneered and french-polished. £60 down the RSPCA shop. We’re going to take the polish off and slap some polyurethane on it. Heathens! We’ve painted the tall-boy we bought at the Sally Ann a deep, high-gloss pink. We got rid of our old kitchen table on Freecycle; and we picked up a set of Ikea tall kitchen cabinets that must be >£500-worth of stuff. 
I went clay-pigeon shooting off an old Thames barge up past the Thames barrier — corporate hospitality from NTT.
Garden has done well. We have been inundatted with tomatoes, many of which are green, though they many are turning red (cue my favourite Shakespeare quote but I can’t find the right phrasing). Unfortunately many of the later-picked are turning brown; the intention is to make some of the glut into chutney, if we can get to that before they spoil. Isa had the great idea of semi-drying the excess ripe tomatoes in the oven and then putting them in jars under oil. They should last six months in the fridge, though care in storage is required: mould pounces if they are not fully covered.
The Hungarian Hot Wax peppers did really well and are utterly delicious if char-grilled. Also pretty hot — some significantly more than others. We’ve given them some of the under-oil treatment, too. We shall see…
The Crystal Lemon cucumbers unfortunately failed to mature — we got two fruits from the entire six plants. These were lovely, so perhaps will try again next year. I think they were probably just planted a little late.
Now it’s Friday and I’m on my way home: hurray! And it’s grey and rainy: boo! Fingers crossed (at least, they will be after I’ve finished typing) for better weather over the weekend…