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[confusedcious]

This is what I wanted to show you yesterday - I ended up needing a flash after all as the courtyard was quite dim today. But as it wasn't so dark it came out well. I'm glad I could show the detail. The fuzzy bit is a section of the frond that has unfurled already.

This tree fern got terribly sunburnt despite our shading it this year. We had to cut off all of the fronds and it sat there looking stumpy and miserable for a while. But this week it has sprouted many new fronds and it's looking much healthier.

Though we had a higher average temperature than usual this year we didn't have any truly shocking heatwaves and very few super-hot days... just no cool ones either. It was also far, far wetter this year which has led to, amongst other things, crickets in near plague numbers (I wouldn't be surprised if they were in plague numbers in some areas). The garden survived the summer very well. The lawn was notably less crispy than it has been for the last few years and now that the tree fern has recovered I think everything's come through quite well. (Well, except the herbs, and particularly the parsley. It's either bugs or the possum to blame for that...)

I noticed the roses are still going strong too. Not as many as there were in October, but five months of flowering is not a bad effort.

I also moved Spartacus to a bigger tank - I read a few things that suggested whilst his bowl was adequate I could do better. I had a 20L/5gal tank hanging around in the shed that just needed a thorough scrub, so I did that. I also found that tank heaters suitable for a tank that size are not at all expensive, and far more energy efficient and effective than using a lamp to boot. He seems to be a very cheerful fish. He always seemed pretty chipper but I'm certain he's even more so than before...