I'm off to the spa town of La Roche Posay for three days this week. I'm not taking the waters but playing in the last SG4L competition of the year. As well as the game there will be an AGM and a dinner which is usually quite jolly.

As a result and because I'm leaving a day earlier than planned, to have dinner and stay overnight with friends en route, I've been busy these last few days redding up the place for winter. I've transplanted some window box and pot plants that I think have a chance of surviving and done my final grass cut. We've decided that since investing in keeping the grass tidy over last winter brought no dividends in the form of a purchaser we'll let it grow. I know I'll regret that decision when I'm faced with the initial backbreaking task of getting it into order in the Spring. Somehow I'll have to get David down here before me.

Cleaning up inside caused me to wonder how much spiders need to eat. We get flies and other insects coming into the house but unless one fly feeds a hundred spiders for a week I don't see how the vast population that lives with me survive. Mind you I did read somewhere that a mouse needs only one crumb of bread a week (I find that hard to believe but...) so a spider probably only needs to lick a fly to gain nourishment equivalent to our three square meals a day.

Sod's law was at work yesterday when I used the washing machine. When I went to check on it I found the bathroom floor that I had scrubbed earlier in the day was inches deep in dirty water. Nothing like the devastation in Manila but even that wee drop demonstrated just what a mess water can cause. The leak came from a weak point in the seal around the door. I've fiddled with it and reset a plastic band that looks as though it plays a critical role but I'm not too excited at the thought of trying it out with the large amount of washing that I'll have to do on my return from La Roche Posay. There is a launderette in Gueret but there's a lot of dead time involved in using that. I may just have to take my dirty washing to Edinburgh.