At the beginning of last week, flurries of House Martins were noisily filling the sky as I worked in one of my favourite gardens. It’s a courtyard garden out in the countryside and is bulging with a cacophony of interesting plants all jostling each other for space. As well as half hidden little gems - the tiny Sedum (Stonecrop), Cyclamen and the delicate daisy like flowers of Erigeron karvinskianus tucked into favourite corners.

A neighbouring apple tree also seems to favour this garden. It droops a nonchalant bough over the fence and is heavily laden with tempting juicy red apples - all good picture book stuff.

When I looked up to watch the antics of the House Martins I noticed the Virginia Creeper on the house wall just, only just, starting it’s transformation to the familiar fiery colours it is favoured for.

And on my way home the third autumnal reminder - this time it was the Swallows cutting through the skies, swapping notes, holiday snaps, re-setting their GPS and perhaps with the youngsters showing of their prowess of manoeuvrability and stamina.

They’ll need it. It’s a long way to Africa.

They’ve gone now and this week has felt far from autumnal - blazing sun and hot, hot, hot. But there’s a freshness, especially in the morning, that I love, and our garden is still looking and feeling particularly fresh - plenty going on - Japanese anemone, Echinacea (above), Sweet peas and Roses. Even the lawn is green and lush and the hedges… well, the hedges I think could do with being a bit neater - or at least, at about ten foot tall, a little bit more under control. Great for wildlife though!

Talking of which, have you noticed the garden spiders? It seems that every time I push my way through a flower bed to weed or prune, a strong cobweb will bar my way or there may be a rather large spider dangling from the brim of my hat or circumnavigating my sleeve. It’s a good reason to wear a hat!

They are so prevelant at this time of year. I presume that they are around during the other months, just a bit more noticable now… strings of pearls on misty mornings twisting through the plants.

Very atmospheric - but not a shared sentiment when it comes to those monstrous house spiders that are now terrorising our homes and bath tubs at high speeds and making us leap onto chairs.

God bless the spider catcher that we bought from Ebay - best £1.99 ever spent!