I'm here, but not for long, it's the most beautiful crisp autumn day out there, with a clear sky that looks like lapis, and the sun turning the houses along the back into a golden castle. It's making the white berries on the bastard service tree shine like pearls and the pyrocantha is living up to it's name of firethorn. All it needs is for the virginia creeper to be in colour (still green though) and I'd have a garden of rubies and pearls.

Here's a thought - are there any precious stones whose colour is commonly orange? And I'm not talking terracotta or scarlet, I mean tangerine or the colour of Penguin paperbacks....

Too lovely a day to sit up here on this thing, so going off to a barbeque this afternoon... must get on and make the chocolate thing.

LTS