What a truly dreadful autumn it has been. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of days when it has not rained. This has reminded me when
we travelled around New Zealand almost twenty years ago and in particular Doubtful Sound, which can suffer between ten and twenty feet of rainfall a year. We were blessed the day we visited, which was fine and clear. Of the few souvenirs we brought back with us was this poem:
It rained and rained and rained
The average fall was well maintained
And when the tracks were simply bogs
It started raining cats and dogs
After a drought of half an hour
We had a most refreshing shower
And then most curious thing of all
A gentle rain began to fall
Next day but one was fairly dry
Save for one deluge from the sky
Which wetted the party to the skin
And then at last the rain set in
Says it all really!
Whilst there has been plenty of action on the garden feeders, there has been scant else seen on the 
wildlife front. I suspect it has all been cowering under cover much the same as I have. The bees are well and truly hunkered down for the winter, which means that I may at last be able to prune back the considerable growth adjacent to their hives. That is not going to happen, however, until I eventually manage to get the leaf litter under control. Mind you, it does make the best compost I have ever used in my life.
On the rare occasions we have managed to do any gardening our constant companions have been our resident robins. Disturbing the ground was just what they wanted and they came within inches of our hands uttering a delightful contented sub-vocalisation, which in some ways reminded us of the sound of a cat purring.
Paul Lister (841696)
