Today we have another pea souper and whilst it may not yet be bleak midwinter and our little corner of the universe has missed the current snowfall so far, the earth is certainly standing hard as iron, and water very much like a stone…the butts and ibc’s are frozen solid and the ground totally unworkable, my outdoor carrots are currently frozen in the raised bed!!

I need to lift the agapanthus inside. I know they’ll stand a fair bit of cold and I’m hoping it’s not too late, this is really quite brutal and here for at least another week.

I haven’t cleared the asparagus fronds yet either, they were year old new crowns this year and that really is something I need to brave the cold for and get cleared. I confess I’ve still way too much tidying to do.

However, with help from my favourite pixies, we did get a huge old lilac bush down, an out of control sambucca pruned and a very overgrown bay chopped to half its height, we now have daylight in both the kitchen and the dining room.

We also cleared the entire leaf drop of Lincolnshire from my yard, well maybe not quite, but I’m convinced it all blows into my yard and swirls exclusively around my porch.

And whilst I’m grumbling about all these jobs I still haven’t done, it’s not happening today. I have a room to clear and Christmas to start, which I haven’t done either.