The autumn, or what we think of as Autumn, falling leaves and lovely colours finally seems to be upon us. Skeins of geese are to be seen flying to or from a pond somewhere, and following the first good frost we have had, the garden finally seems to have stopped growing. Some horse owners have had problems with the Autumn rains producing particularly lush grass. Some horses, and especially ponies can fall victim to a foot condition called Laminitus which is very painful to the animal and if not treated can be fatal.

We have moved one of our bird feeders to a position under the lower branches of an Apple tree. As it is now outside the kitchen window we can watch the birds more easily, and they seems to like the better protection from the branches and twigs of the tree which shield them from the attention of the sparrow hawks and other larger crows.

It will be nearly Christmas by the time this gets to you. I started feeding the birds after the first frost. It was late this year (beginning of Nov) and I remember a few days before thinking that our garden was quite pleasant with unseasonal flowers still out in bloom. A Bumble Bee was seen collecting pollen from a Fushsia bush. We don't feed the birds during the warmer weather, relying on them to clear the shrubs trees and bushes of pests such as green fly and aphids. The bird feeders have come out of storage and the bird table scrubbed and disinfected. I feed them table scraps, bread etc and bought seeds, (sunflower etc) and peanuts. I don't buy fat balls in plastic netting as birds can get their feet tangled in the mesh, this can cause cuts and injuries to feet. I shall probably make my own fat balls when the really hard weather comes. If you do buy them remove the netting once feeding starts. Having once started it is important to carry on feeding as  the smaller birds possibly from later broods start to rely on this feed source as they have not had time to put weight on. This is something to think about if you are going away for a few days.

The new insect box (that our son bought for us) is in situ and should provide protection from the weather for beneficial beetles such as ladybirds that hibernate in winter. Spiders also make use of the boxes.

Of course, if you need some exercise you can always go out into the garden and rake up the leaves, and put them on the compost heap, a job that you were going to do next week, or some pruning.

Finally, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year, mind how you all go and do not drink too much.