We had a dark and stormy night yesterday, a real belter with hours of drenching rain and gusting winds. Just like the old days before the drought. And today? It’s calmer and brighter but we’ve still got those howling winds and big crashing waves. Life is getting back to normal.

The autumnal colours are out in force in the ones that survived the summer heat. The ruby red sedums, bright scarlet lilies and barbie pink anemones are really trying to mark the turn of the season. The autumnal solstice has already passed and in only three weeks, the clocks will go back to wintertime and the long dark days will return. The summer really did speed by too fast.

There is much debris to clear out but we have two survivors, just: the lovely bougainvillea and a verbena. With a bit of care over the winter, they will become glorious again next year. The new patch that was planted over a dig up to replace the mains water pipe is thriving despite its exposure to the elements.

And the pizza oven has, for the first time in its existence, got a chimney. A shiny steel very posh contraption with a ‘dampner’, whatever that is. So, when the weather eases, a lot of experimenting will take place to make the perfect pizza. The deck is still a train wreck…

Work on the new book continues with edits and rewrites that now give a solid 20k words and detailed story boards for the next 20k. It’s getting there!

Come back next month for more news of the new book, and a sampler of the BookTok clip.