I think the water table on the big lawn must be about 9 inches below the turf. A bit of difficulty getting a tennis ball to bounce but the dogs still enjoy chasing balls from one end to the other. Today's paper (December 1st) reports the wettest November since 1948 and we have had continuous strong to gale force winds from every compass direction during the last 3 weeks. A very brief lull for literally a few hours yesterday and 3 boats made a sadly fruitless trip to sea. The larger Newlyn boats have not fared much better and there has been a real shortage of fish on the market. The last few years, November and December have been cold, bright and dry so I suppose it was time for a change.

Briar Cottage has only had a few weeks unoccupied and Christmas and New Year are booked so we will try to make the cottage festive for the celebrations. As I write a new larger fridge/freezer is en route. I hope we have some dry weather in the New Year as there are lots of outside jobs in the garden on the waiting list.