hickory

This young tree has taken years to establish but grew lots this year and is now taller than me and colouring up nicely for the autumn.

My mission for today was to get the leafbin emptied. This involved choosing a border or bed for it to go on and getting it weeded and tidy. I picked the newish border along the picket fence and worked away there all day.
The leaf mould comes out of the bin all black and crumbly. It makes a great weed smothering mulch as well as improving the soil structure, and I find this one of the most satisfying jobs in the garden. I like the sense of being connected across the seasons, last year's fallen leaves to feed next year's as yet unsown flowers.

I didn't get quite finished though as I had to take Fizzy the cat to the vet. What I thought was a persistent infection on her face turns out to be an inoperable cancer. At some point quite soon we will have to make that last decision. We both feel very sad about this.