A return to some sort of normality

 After the disruption caused by Lucy's passing, after which neither of us was good for much while we grieved, not to mention helping our remaining cat adapt to being the only cat in the house - he has been calling for Lucy, and sometimes, when he goes out on the deck still looks behind him to see if she's following him.

Still, cuddles, love and attention seems to be soothing him and I'm sure he'll come to terms with her not being around.

We have soothed ourselves by putting a little cat sculpture in the garden to remind us of her and I must admit I caught myself talking to it while working in the garden in the same way I would chat to our cats

The weather has been quite wonderful, warm afternoons but distinctly chilly mornings and evenings. I've been able to press on with tidying the garden before winter, and have been continuing my probably vain attempt to get all the couch grass out of the garden bed.

It will probably soon be time to start planting our winter vegetables, and I've had a bit of a cock up there.

Earlier this week Ausnet turned off the power to the street to some maintenance to the power poles and as it was going to take them several hours we went out, first to the big Bunnings hardware store in Albury, and then on to Talangatta for lunch at the bakery.

While we were in Bunnings we bought some plants in pots and trays, plus some seeds. I don't know what happened, but when I put the plants in a cardboard box to protect them I seem to have forgotten to pick up the seeds, or else I dropped them.

Whatever happened, they weren't there when we got home, obviously my bad, so I reordered them online and hopefully they'll be here next week.

For obvious reasons, I've not been for a bike ride for almost two weeks, despite it still being (just) warm enough to ride in the mornings before breakfast, and it's now getting too late in the year for riding in the mornings - the sun's not up till after seven, and even if I set off a little before sunrise I'm having to contend with the start of the morning commuter traffic, which kind of spoils the pleasure of it, so I guess the answer is some afternoon rides, like my ride to Baarmutha a few years ago, before winter proper sets in.

Up at the Athenaeum it's been cataloguing and more cataloguing. Again no real finds this week, just the usual mix of Victorian novels lightened with some 1930s crime and romance novels, the escapist literature of the time ...