[AlaninCarlisle]

I spent all day yesterday scarifying our front lawn with an old petrol scarifier. There was so much thatch and moss on it that I filled two of those large builder's bags with it. The lawn, quite a large one at about 600 sq metres, looked like a ploughed field afterwards when I dressed it with autumn fertilizer. What made things even gloomier was that according to yesterday's forecast there was to be no real rain in the next week or so, despite the previous day's forecast to the contrary.

But this is Cumbria, a county that defies national weather forecasts. It has been lashing down here for the past four hours and large puddles have formed everywhere. I can almost here the new grass starting to grow again

[sunshineband]

Send a drop or two our way,, will you? It's still hosepipes at dawn round here!