The boys have gone...

When I think "I must go and feed the boys" it means that the caddy in the kitchen is overflowing with vegetable peelings, banana skins, etc. So it is a walk down the garden and off with the lid of the composter.

This dalek-like object was a gift. When #1 daughter was Civil Service Private Secretary to the Minister for the Environment she thought she must turn the parents green and the composter arrived, literally, unannounced on the doorstep. But it has been welcome.

It's quite fun during the warm months of summer to whip the lid off and count the fractions of seconds it takes for an army of bugs, insects and creepy-crawlies to disappear from the unaccustomed light.

But with the temperature outside hovering around freezing, there is no bacterial action to break down the material, and no flies to play their part in the process.

From hundreds to none! Have they all gone to Klosters for the ski-ing?