Ouch.

Took a trip down to the local coachworks this morning to get an estimate for the various dents and scrapes in the car.  I had planned to get the work done anyway, even before we acquired some new ones in Lagrasse last month.  It now looks like going into four figures.  Still, they've done some work for us before, and we've been pretty satisfied with it.  Provisionally booked in for while we're away in Portugal next week.  The workshop is rather full of elderly Daimler Limousine at the moment, so I hope they can get the brute started between now and then....

It felt quite autumnal when I was down there, and the rain was delivering the occasional spit.  Marked change from last Friday when we had lunch guests.  That day we had apéritifs outside on the terrace, whither we also repaired later for cups of tea, and we had all the doors open while we were having lunch.  My scalp feels as if it has been out in the sun, which, of course, it has.  Nice thing to be able to report in October.

We may get another flush of roses before the winter.  JP2 is at last showing some colour, and Chicago Peace has some promising buds.  Just in time for the forecast heavy rain.  Needless to say, the good old penstemons are flowering like mad, particularly in the bed we got dug over and fertilised  in the spring, and the fuchsias are doing equally well.  I may have mentioned that we seem to have had only one successful cutting from the rose pink penstemon I bought a few years ago, so I have taken a few cuttings in the hope of starting the next generation.  The original plant was in a border that gets waterlogged in the winter, so it's perhaps no surprise that it turned its toes up. 

A pleasant but sad errand tomorrow.  One of my co-hobbyists is hanging up his black cap, since he's approaching the age at which we all have to retire and find a new hobby.  It seems like yesterday when I was just starting, and sat at his feet absorbing the wisdom he'd accumulated over, by then, close on 30 years.  Fortunately, we both picked up extra sessions last Monday, and for the first and last time we worked together with me occupying the chair in the middle.  And with charming continuity, I was at it again on Wednesday, mentoring yet another new recruit who has hit the ground running.