I’ve now got four cat deterrents; they snap at my ankles as I walk around the garden. I don’t know if they deter the cat but I haven’t seen any nasty evidence of it. If these deterrents don’t work the next step must be a Jack Russell!

The garden is heading into its autumn phase: I’ve dealt with only some of the long grass; the jasmine, so fragrant a couple of weeks ago, now looks tatty; colour is provided by ripening apples and the over-leggy rudbeckias; cyclamen are peeping through. There’s a fair bit to do, but the weather is unpropitious and both green bins are full to bursting until next bin day. The tattiness lives for another week.