I went down to do a few jobs at the allotment. It’s not bad down there, fairly self-sufficient, but there are still patches of weeding to be done. I watered most things – just realised I didn’t do the back bed, but its leaves are beginning to die back now. Suddenly the big mystery gourd is much more visible. There’s also a new gourd growing, though it won’t have much time now. I’ve got a feeling it’s come from the pumpkin plant though.

The black eyed Susan vine is doing pretty well on the ledge. The only trouble is that the flowers that are high up have all gone through the fence to face that way. The other two in the plot aren’t as big as this plant, but have done a similar thing of facing the wrong way.

This purple-bordered gold moth was on the runner beans. They’re scarce, so it’s no surprise I’d not seen one before.

My main job was raking through the yin yang beans and picking the new small ones that have appeared. There are also some new flowers in among the foliage. A couple of pods were headed to the compost heap, so I opened them. A pretty dry one produced the darkest two beans and a big fat yellowing pod produced the big lighter ones. Should be a fun harvest when it comes to it.

I also brought home a few more gourds. Just one more Turks turban remains. The finished vines and straw beds are now in the compost bin. It’s getting good and full with dry material. It’s quite fun starting to tidy up for winter very slowly. The first seed catalogue arrived the other day.