WEATHER (Brittany)

Just back from a couple of weeks at Toad Hall by the sunny Lac au Duc - yes northern France - in October - HEAT.

Indeed there were kids swimming in the lake! Needless to say it didn't last, the days did become more autumnal towards the end but having expected that we would be snuggling up to the wood burning stove for the duration the fact that we were out walking, cycling or gardening every day was a bit of a shock.

It was the annual big clear up of brambles, collection of hazel nuts and cutting back of laurels that just won't take the hint and go and grow somewhere else! This time I have liberally applied tree killer, if it actually kills the tree I'll be a somewhat surprised, I just don't want anymore shoots, so I hope it doesn't really do ''exactly what it says on the tin''. As for the hazel nuts, you open the back door and the patio is brown when it should be grey gravel, we haven't even managed to get through last year's harvest and there I was carting more home to N.I. Lots of walnuts too (thank-you neighbours), apples are littering the countryside (why do our supermarkets stock south African and New Zeland apples when France is currently awash with them??)

But some foraging got the better of me. Chestnuts. Out walking, my sister emerged from behind a sacred shrine laden with a haul of sweet chestnuts, they'd all been a bit puny up until this point. Aha, it is the blessed virgin of the chestnut, I said. Nibbling on a roasted one that evening I thought, 'chestnuts don't usually have hard bits of shell attached to them' no, it was a chunk of tooth I was chomping. So natures free harvest has cost me £20 at the dentist this week and it'll be another £50 next week. That's what  I get for being blasphemous!

More autumnal colour.