A new broom

A definite change in the weather. By mid-morning it was already 7 degrees and it's stayed that way all day. 

Spent a lot of the morning trying to work out why my printer isn't working. The paper begins to go through, then stops and the printer carries on as if the paper was there. I went through the recommended stages to do with automatically and then manually cleaning the rollers, but eventually gave up. Very annoying, as I have to print out a number of things, including my regular piece for the u3a Creative Writing meeting on Tuesday. 

After lunch I tried to repair the plastic box where we keep the rubbish bins and other things. It's been wrecked by the strong winds over the last few weeks and I can't put it back together. I think I'll buy a small timber shed to replace it. I need somewhere to keep garden tools too - and I hate those plastic boxes anyway!

While I was out I did some leaf-clearing down by the road and got my brand-new Homebase broom out to sweep the tarmac in front of the garage. On the second 'brush', the shaft snapped!  I had to make do with the wire rake.

My Blip today is of a very special fern, which I confess to having Blipped before. Bearing in mind the never-to-be-forgotten remark made by a visitor to Arduaine Garden some years ago -  "All ferns are bracken to me!" - I know this might look like just another fern even if not bracken. It is in fact the King Fern, Todea barbara, native to SE Australia and North Island New Zealand and also to southern Africa. I was given this from the Ascog Fernery on the Isle of Bute back in 2017 and I'm surprised that it's never been damaged in winter so far.  Fingers crossed.

Quote of the day: 'I think we are all frightened a little bit when a new broom starts to sweep.' - Steve Bruce.