Frost Warning!

The worst thing -- because my greenhouse gets as frosty as everywhere else, the porch is full of junk and my geraniums are humungous. They are humungous because I once had the plan of stretching them up canes so that they get to look like the kind of things you see on Spanish balconies: 30 inches tall. They are fantastic, and I never again want to lose them in a frost like I did some last year. I have red ones, and variegated ones, and pink ones and all sorts.

This weather is so heavenly that I've been gardening in my old army vest all day, but now we have a frost warning, so I've just been out in the dark, getting my feet soaked in the soil and dew, and have dragged the geraniums into the porch (that I can now no longer move in) and onto every window sill. And I know that tomorrow there'll be worms squirming about on the porch floor and windowsills, and some slugs and snails getting everywhere. I don't mind slimy creepy things outside, but they give me the heebie-jeebies in.

Then I went out with the torch and got all the pumpkins in, just in case the frost gets them too. They've been looking just great in the garden, lying on top of their little barrow mound, picking up the colour of the marigolds in the old onion bed. They are tiny this year, about the size of honeydew melons, because we had no sun when it was meant to be summer, but tiny's a really nice size for cooking.

Well, vain Polly has visitors this weekend and wants the lovely display. She might just go out on Saturday morning and put them all back into the garden, just for show.