Had a great afternoon stoking the fires – we have a permanent heap of bits of wood at the bottom of the garden, and when the need for a bonfire gets too urgent to ignore we send it all up in smoke in an incinerator. This time it was the demise of the honeysuckle which meant I couldn’t put it off any more, so we had a happy afternoon playing with matches.

There are plenty of people who’ll tell you that’s the most environmentally-unfriendly way to dispose of this kind of waste… uh, no, I think not. First it’s carbon neutral – the plant has absorbed as much carbon dioxide as you’re sending out. Second, it’s a lot better than putting it in landfill. Third, the preferred deep green option – of putting it on the compost – would require extensive shredding, involving a lot of electricity, noise pollution and generally dirty and non-eco-friendly things. To say nothing of being infuriatingly slow and time-consuming (has anyone out there found a garden shredder that’s actually worth using?) So for all you closet arsonists out there – go ahead, it’s the only (legal) way to go!