My son the artiste.

Here's what Connor and I did last night............

we cut each other's hair. He looks so bizarre in this photo. He's got his orthodontic plate in, and he's enjoying the power rush. There's something a little unnerving about handing over your appearance to the tender hands of an 11 year old, but he behaved himself and it turned out fine.

Look at these fine leeks! I put them in the ground in July or August, and they're STILL not huge and fat, but they're getting there. Yesterday I read somewhere that there was a nun who was interviewed on tv who said that she experimented with cutting the leeks off at ground level, and so far she's got 3 crops out of the

same leeks. I got wildly excited. That's my sort of gardening. It's kind of like the gift that keeps on giving.

But I tried this a while ago with some spring onions. My friend Judy told me to plant the root bits and they'll sprout and voila! more spring onions. I did this, and now they've got pompoms on the top of them. They don't look like this in the shops. Maybe I'll harvest the seeds and start again.

Here's one bed of the veggies. The caulie at the front gave its life last night so we could live. It was beautiful.

My friend Sandy came over yesterday for a coffee (Hmmm. Maybe she's in cahoots with Scott too? But it was all to no avail. The novel has lurched itself off again. 15000 words. I want November to end so I can get some sleep.)

Anyway, she said that her 15 year old daughter was talking to her, and said that she wanted to have kids one day, because "after all, that's what we're here for." Sandy was pleased, though she did mention to her that she didn't have to start sprouting them right away!! Her feeling was that if her daughter was wanting to one day be a Mum, then that must mean that she is doing something right as a parent.

I nodded, and said something appropriate. How could I tell her that Jack keeps saying that he NEVER wants to be a parent? What a good job I must be doing........................