‘So, are you having a nice rest now that you’re closed?’

I never know quite what to reply to this question. Surely people don’t expect me to say ‘Of course! I’ve got my feet up watching daytime TV’?

The reality is a continuing avalanche of projects in the nursery and garden being squeezed in before the anticipated big freeze. Our two week autumn holiday somehow got compressed to two days – but a very lovely two days in pretty Christchurch on the Dorset coast. Thankfully the local council have protected this natural harbour from the high-rise nightmare that now surrounds Bournemouth (understandable) and Poole (inexplicable). Christchurch sits gently in the landscape with all the new development strictly low rise. The most recent looks like so many yacht sails from a distance. Pricey I’m sure, but lovely. The beach huts are a snip at £150K, we heard…

If you really want to see our holiday snaps click here. I promise they won’t make you jealous….

Back in the real world, the old greenhouse has been moved and transformed from a greenish, sagging slime-creature to a sparkling edifice with a straight ridge line (oh, what sublime joy) on a new, flat concrete base. A feat of patience and invention on Pete’s part – assisted by Ewan and me when we were allowed to. Rather than insulate and heat the whole thing, I’ve boxed in one bench with bubble wrap and put the heater in there. Hopefully it’ll keep the heating bill down a bit.

The chicks have made it out of the broody coop and into the hen-house proper. They spent the first few nights sheltering under Mum in one of the nest boxes before she decided to lead them up onto the roost. It took about half an hour of fluttering and over-balancing before they all made it – the two black ones either side and the little brown one tucked under Mum. Note that the other three hens are firmly out of the way at the other end of the perch with the cockerel keeping order in between.

Talking of heating bills, we’ve had 6 proper frosts already this year and a whole load more to come this week. And it’s still November. OK, they are pretty, but we can’t get anything done when the ground is frozen. A good frost does reveal whether a border has good bones, though, and pleasingly I think this new one does. The other picture is Acer ‘Osakazuki’.