This is the most hectic week I've had in ages: Mark's been in New York, having fun with friends and hearing great performances of music by his favourite Joachim Raff. I've been home, running here and there to meetings, all of which somehow involve my transporting great quantities of "stuff" in my car - computer equipment, bags of yarn and charity knitting, parcels of calendars and diaries and on one journey, overnight stuff. The days have been full, I've enjoyed going from one thing to another but I will be pleased when my diary suddenly empties after a conference this weekend coming up.

So in the odd free half hour here and there, what do I do but gather a few things from the garden and put a kind of arrangement on the table to make me feel like I'm still keeping it all together at home. It began witha few conkers I collected from the Waitrose car park, but needed a bit more and a bit more...

Of course, after only a couple of hours indoors, the conkers went very dull and lost their appeal so I replaced them with a few cobnuts I'd bought. So, the conker in the picture is a Penkridge treasure, as is the little crab apple. Aren't they fantastic? (even if it does scratch the furniture!)