Blaze of glory

Our berberis featured as an additional photo a few days ago, when it had one red branch; today it's a flame of gold in the morning sun as we finally tidy away the last pretence of summer - the wooden bench outside our back door, a sun trap if the sun shines - and bring back the bird table to where we can see it from the house. 

And that's what this post is really about: I think we had lunch sitting on that bench twice during all the so-called summer months, and a pre-prandial drink once. Really. The rest of the time it was either raining, or cloudy, or had rained in the recent past so that the bench was too damp to sit on.

Here's to better luck next time it appears ...