it's dark and it's raining and it's only 1/4 to November

I love the Autumn - the other Autumn,
not the one we're having today.
The other Autumn has long ripe warm sunny
days where the trees are full of colour
and the light is an
extraordinary uplifting mix of gunmetal grey and gold.
But that's the other Autumn.
Today's Autumn is cold and raining and
the sun doesn't seem to have risen
much beyond woolly blanket grey all day.
This is the other, other Autumn.

Commitee Meeting.

Every few months a group of professional writers based in East Anglia meet up over a long lazy meal, cooked by one of our number, assisted on occasions by their partners (the degree of assistance varies from household to household but generally those who help, whether by suggesting menus, growing the ingredients or doing the lion's share of the cooking, make a huge contribution which in any other organisation would probably mean they got mentioned in dispatches or given a commemorative plate and bouquet).

Anyway the food is always good, the company wonderful, and conversation ranges from the cerebral, via the popularist, through to high farce and low comedy. Today it involved a cross country hike to an allotment.

I was invited to join after the whole thing was established, but the general idea is that we circulate menus not minutes, and - at meetings - quickly get down to talking, drinking, eating, laughing, and walking - no minutes are taken, no subs collected and no business done, any matters arising are quickly forgotten.

Long may it continue.

October 1st ... harvest home

I garden - it's something about being over 50; one minute you're having kids, thinking about the rock and roll life style you've left behind and regretting the passing of youth and the next you're wondering whether to go organic and whether there is still time to get another row of carrots in before the soil is too cold.

This weekend I've been reaping what I've sown... literally. I've picked beans to dry, squashes to store and made about a gallon of pasta sauce out of the tomatoes,peppers, onion and garlic I've grown this year and you know what? It feels fabulous!

Okay, so we're not self sufficient by a long way, but not much beats watching the progress of the seeds you've planted and then eating the things you've grown, nipping out at supper time to dig a root of new potatoes, pull a couple of cobs of corn, marvel at growing your own grapes, cut a lettuce or pick a few tomatoes, or come back in with spring onions and courgettes still warm from the afternoon sun - at least not when you're over 50, that is.