the worm of doubt is beginning to gnaw

he's given the chicken shed another go with the incredibly expensive insect repellent (derived from cider vinegar). 

if it works all well and good.

if not horsemouth is going to have to go non-organic and kill the bastard chicken mites with insecticide. (he's also probably having to go get a mask/ gloves/ eye protection to let him spray it with impunity). 

caleb williams by william godwin continues to progress. horsemouth is now into book two where the worm of doubt is beginning to gnaw at our central character, what if falkland, the oh so virtuous lord, did murder the oik tyrrel?

volume one of kilvert's diary (as selected by plommer) is over. we are on to volume two where, at some point, he will leave clyro never to return (well not quite, but nearly). 

today his mum is away to town. 

his brother, sister in law and their youngest are up for a visit towards the end of september 

this may enable horsemouth to visit the wen (but quite where he'll stay when he's down there is another matter). horsemouth is getting quite concerned by the need to move his stuff and indeed to finish off with the communal endeavour. 

further mikefromtexas is visiting for much of september - horsemouth hopes to go down to catch the first stage of the visit and perhaps catch up right at the end. this would mean purchasing a new senior citizen railcard (or going back to paying full whack for his rail tickets). 

the nasturtiums are dying back and seem mostly to be feeding the caterpillars (horsemouth has collected plenty of nasturtium fruit), the potato plants look heat stressed (and so the potatoes may be small), the runner beans may be coming to an end, the damsons are nearly ready.  the damson tree in the bottom field has suffered another branch breakage due to being overloaded with fruit - maybe the fruit can be saved (maybe not). of the the three damson trees on the hill above the house only one has any damsons, the other two have been sterilised by the heat. 

outside soft gentle rain (autumn may be on its way).