me basket's full!

one of the 'problems' of having two big pine trees at the back of the house is that - at this time of year - we get bombarded with falling cones! I spend a few minutes each day collecting them, and keep them for burning on the stove, but this year seems to have been a bumper year. As the picture shows, my Ikea bag basket is full to overflowing! they do seem to be slowing down a bit now though.

I put the basket next to a trough with catmint in for a bit of colour- it is well past its best, but the bees were out in force and I got a flying bee and a cling-on bee which I will put in my folio in the 'up close' section. the catmint is rather battered after all the rain, I'm told I should have tied it up a bit, but I rather like it falling over to the ground, and the cats do too!