Bird watching, DIY, Baking

Opened the curtains this morning to the sight and sound of Canada geese flying over. Not too large a flock - this is about the third flyby in 10 days - so more to come yet. They often land for a quick feed in some fields about a mile away before moving on. Whether they stop over winter at Pensthorpe Nature Reserve or move further on I don't know.

My home made laundry liquid has changed consistency. It may be to do with me having to pull it apart to use or maybe that is what it does. Anyway, it is now liquid enough to put into an old milk container and I have added a few drops of lavender aromatherapy oil – smells lovely.

No gardening done for the last two days due to rain and the next two don't look any better so we are still working indoors. My OH has dismantled an Ikea standard lamp that had a reading lamp attached (he knows what he's doing by the way). We now have two separate lights, the reading lamp sitting behind the settee to enable things to be done now the nights are drawing in. Very useful.

Finally made my Christmas cake yesterday. I use Delia's last minute cake recipe – very good. As she doesn't say though if it will last as long as a more conventional cake I tend to freeze it until mid December. Then I thaw, feed and decorate over the next week or so. Always works fine and it then lasts until well into the New Year.

Now is the time we do an autumn clean of the conservatory. The nets are a bit dull and the inside looking grubby. Our conservatory sits on the front/side of the house and it is where we enter (there was nowhere else to put it). It faces west so gets sun from mid afternoon onwards so is very good for tomatoes etc. It is also used as a boot/coat/work room. We used to worry about what people would think but now we don't care. When J & S come, this is where Sage their dog sleeps. In winter it doesn't usually get below 8-10c so she should be fine.