Buzzing Bluebeard

Although the weather is getting cooler and there's a noticeable touch of fall in the air, the bees are still out and about. They like our bluebeard (Caryopteris)...

...as do the hoverflies.

I spent all of yesterday tidying up around the house. I did laundry, watered all the houseplants, and mowed the lawn.

The grass is still looking scraggly in areas that we didn't mow over the summer, to preserve the teasels and encourage insect life. But it should bounce back in coming weeks with adequate rain and sunshine.

I sat out on the back bench and read the first 60 pages of "City of Night," that paperback by John Rechy that I picked up at a charity shop a couple of months ago. It's good so far. Very "Midnight Cowboy" in theme. It was published in 1963, a couple of years before "Midnight Cowboy," so it's ironic that the latter would go on to be the more famous novel about urban male hustlers.

I managed to break yet another slat out of the bench. I suppose we'll have to buy a new one. It's almost nine years old and we've refinished it once, so I think it's served its purpose. Now the wood is rotting at the joints and while it will probably get us through winter (when we rarely use it) we may replace it come spring.

Otherwise, there's not much news from this corner of the world. I was glad for a quiet day to let me get my life organized. Today I need to check in with the optometrist on the status of my new glasses. I handed them in more than two weeks ago to get new lenses and haven't heard a peep.