I should know better

No, not dead....just nothing much happening here. I`ve had a quiet time looking after puppies and coughing up every colour known to man (and one small sad spider I must have inhaled in the garden.) The most exciting event of the week so far was wrapping up the treeferns for the winter, and the only highlight to come is a visit to Dr Doom for a session with the dreaded Flow Meter.

I am hopeless with this item. You blow into it and it reads off your lung capacity. But somehow I can never manage a proper mouth seal and get the sort of result that suggests you are optimistically testing a week-old corpse. I did it last week and he said cheerfully that the reading would be fine for a geriatric confined to bed with chronic bronchitis and a collapsed lung. I am left wondering if I can fake it with a concealed bicycle pump....

Meanwhile the puppies grow on. Storm and Shadow still carry labels that say "may contain nuts". Rio still batters her brother. Truly is blissfully unaware that the countdown to her pudding club membership has begun. My transport arrangements to the remaining Championship shows are in doubt.

And so we head into winter.