Having returned from Armenia only 24 hours previously, I was pitched into the real world on the first day of September with a staff meeting at school. This was followed fairly quickly by two open days at which I always mount the Aston 125 exhibition. And normal archiving service resumed simultaneously.

Our 'sister' school in Handsworth celebrated its centenary mid month with a lunch for its 'old girls' - to which I was invited! So four men found themselves at the end of one of the long tables at which all the guests were seated. Autumn sunshine filtered through the windows of the school's magnificent hall. The view out gave onto the domes of the local Sikh temple - a sign of the times. The present headmistress, Dr Elspeth Insch, OBE, made a speech in which she spoke about her predecessors, and confirmed that this would be her last year before retiring to Cumbria after 23 years in post.

These events apart, the month seems to have been spent doing little else but gardening. In addition to all the jobs which make autumn a busy time in any garden, I have undertaken a 'plant dance' which is intended to populate a new, large bed created by the redesign of my front drive. The magnificent warm spell has, however, made me reluctant to remove plants which are looking even better now than at the height of what turned out to be a disappointing summer.

In July I reported, with great enthusiasm, the installation of solar panels on my roof. Unfortunately, that enthusiasm is not shared by my electricity supplier. I was warned that this might be so by the installers. Two months after submitting an application to join the Government's 'Feed in Tariff' scheme, it was returned to me for two minor amendments. First, they did not accept that the initial meter reading was zero! Did they want a negative reading perhaps? The other item at which they cavilled was on a certificate supplied by the installers, who amended it with commendable speed. This enabled me to return the revised application the same day. npower won't like that!