Washing on the line in a heatwave. This picture exudes the heat of our recent heatwaves. Washing dried in less than two hours.

Another happy heat-loving space is our tropical bed . Less happy are the pot grown plants of which we have many. Pot grown plants failed to thrive and went into a protective phase, not dying but not doing any growing or ripening.

But nearly a month since the last really hot weather all plants have snapped back into action. Tomatoes and Strawberries are prolific and as red as you could hope for. Everything else is growing away. The potted palm trees are throwing out new leaves. But days are shortening so yesterday all the potted palms were moved into the areas with maximum daylight in September. My hope is that their new leaves will unfurl and get stronger before the high winds of October.

With October in mind I decided to start on Autumnisation of the yard. It feels wrong in bright summer-like, September sunlight, but it is a job that must be done. A grubby job but satisfying with the reward of a cleansing swim. Chillier than I have become used to but still lovely reward for my labours.

Full disclosure there is vitually no difference between autumnisation and wint**isation but I really cannot contemplate that word just yet and neither can my potted palms.My washing is already suffering day-long drying that is not quite 100% . Autumnisation sucks.