Unsettled

The unsettled and unpredictable weather continues.  One minute a heavy shower, one minute warm sunshine.  It is cool enough indoors to have the fire lit in the hall, where the washing is drying.  The line under the ash tree I have left out, hoping that the breeze will dry the clothes and that they will be protected from the showers.  

The garden birds have come back.  I put food out yesterday for the first time this summer and the garden was alive with birds all day.  Sparrows, great tits, blue tits, nuthatches, coal tits, even (I think) a garden warbler.  And again today the feeder has been almost emptied in about four or five hours.  

Schools start again next week and mornings and evenings are noticeably cooler.  There seem to be blackberries everywhere - lots of bushes on the hill behind the house and in the old lane - and I have been wondering about the hazelnuts in the hedge.  These seem to be signs of the season winding down, but then the sun comes out again and I think about shorts and meals outside.