Sometimes it is difficult to know what to do out in the garden. I had an hour or so out there this afternoon.

In anticipation I had spent some time in bed through the morning turning over in my mind what tasks were out there to be done. As I lay I also took it upon myself to wonder why my tomatoes had done so badly whilst the chillies had done so well. Looking back at it at the end of the day it appeared that the chilli crop next to the tomato crop had won out about 10 to 1.

There were plenty of leaves to be swept up and I duly did a bit of that. They were tipped into a large bag to be left for the next few months until turned into mulch. But looking up at the trees there were still as lot mores leaves to come down and it was difficult to summon up enthusiasm for a task knowing that no sooner was it done then it would be needed to be done again.

The beds are still heavy with the foliage of summer. I spent some time clearing that but a lot of it was still green and in the warmth that had gathered under the fog it felt too early to be hacking everything back. From the bits that I did chop back I disturbed a frog. It had obviously grown since the summer and had me jumping back as it scuttled out from where it had been hiding.

The hour or so’s worth of gardening done I made supper. A sweet sour curry of chicken with spices and dried apricot. The best thing about it was being able to make use of the packet of Jaggery sugar that has been on the side in the kitchen for the last six months. I had obviously  bought it for something and then promptly forgotten to use it. Arguably sugar would have done just as well but it did add a heft of sweetness to the roasted spices.

The best thing about roasting the spices was tipping them into the mortar and taking in the arid smell they gave off as I crushed them with the pestle.