Lazing in a hammock on a lovely sunny Sunday

My old hammock stand rusted so I got a new one which I put up last night. No instructions came with it so I had to go by the pictures on the website. It is supposed to be easy to put up and take down, but I don't think it easy enough to take down every time rain is forecast - but I will take it down and put it away for the winter.

It is under the overhang of my neighbours' ash tree and I spent some time today lying in my hammock reading and watching the swifts, and the occasional pigeon flying overhead.

I also put out the wooden slatted deckchair. I don't mind this getting caught in a shower but not to get wet too often, so put it out only when the weather forecast for several days is good. I sat in it this morning eating my breakfast (my own strawberries and loganberries on cereal) watching a dozen swifts - maybe more, they were flying so fast!

There is a theory that being green often involves not doing very much, so I have been quite green today!

Leaving leaves

Had a day off today and spent some time clearing ash tree leaves from the concrete path and the concrete at the bottom of the garden for the leaf mould bin (a large, old birdcage someone had dumped by a lamppost several years ago).

All the leaves on the long flower bed and the vegetable plot I left. It is cover for the soil over winter and saves two lots of carting, to the leaf mould bin and then back on to the beds. This left-where-it-fell leaf mould is all the fertiliser the flower bed gets!

I notice how leaves just left where they lie on the soil rot down much, much quicker than piles of leaves.

I then went to the end of the road and collected several buckets of sycamore leaves for the bed in the front garden. This is for hibernating animals - a couple of autumns ago I saw a large toad, so I want plenty of insulation for her if she is still returning to spend the winter in my front garden.

Pleased to see no sign of ash die back in my neighbours' ash trees - long may that continue.