Last week I mentioned that it is still ‘leaf-time’ in the garden and had a few questions about ‘leaf legalities’ – and an email berating leaf blowers. Blowers are like Marmite, you either love them or hate them. I think used properly they can be really useful but the key is to blow the leaves into a pile and then pick them up and dispose of, or make compost with, them. Don’t just blow them ‘out of sight and out of mind’.

The ‘legalities’ are tricky. Apparently intentionally blowing or sweeping leaves onto verges, footpaths or other public areas constitutes fly tipping or littering which is actually a criminal offence. People have been fined for doing so.

The basic ‘rules’ are: fallen leaves on roads will be cleared by your District or Borough Council. Leaves on private land are the responsibility of the land owner with fallen leaves belonging to whoever owns the land that they fall onto. Tree owners don't have to collect leaves that have fallen from their tree onto someone else's property. Nor do they have to take back leaves from their trees that have fallen on to, or been gathered from, neighbouring properties. It is also unlawful to return fallen leaves back to someone else's land without their permission, which includes highway land such as the road and the paths and verges running alongside a property. Therefore, landowners or residents should never use a leaf blower (or other tool) to blow leaves from private land onto the road, pavements or grass verges where they could block drains and cause a hazard to road or pavement users.

It's worth remembering that this also applies to fallen blossom, catkins, fruit, nuts, berries and pine cones. As with most things, I think common sense and courtesy are pretty good guidelines.

With some parts of Wales not seeing the sun at all in the first two weeks of November, we have had a lot of misty, foggy days and folklore warns us that for every foggy day we have in November, we will have a frosty day in February. I also love the widespread folklore-belief is that fog is ‘the work of the Devil’. In fairytales and folk beliefs Fog is always a woman, often referred to as Granny Fog. In other stories she is a sorceress, who enchants and mesmerises people and then takes the fruit of their labour from the fields. Other November weather folklore includes, ‘If the leaves of trees and grape vines don't fall before November 11, (which is St Martins Day) you can expect a cold winter. If it's fair, dry, and cold on November 11, the cold in winter won't last long. With the leaves still being on the trees and the 11th being dry and fair, I suppose one will be right.

Flowers in bloom late in autumn indicate a bad winter (oh no), but perhaps the ideal day to check the weather is Thursday as folklore states, ‘As November 21, so the winter.’

I have just read a fabulous book, The Expectation Effect (How Your Mind Set Can Transform Your Life’. I am a great believer in that attitude, but it is always good to be reminded and have a ‘top up’. So with a mindset focussed on gratitude this week, I want to say ‘thank you’ to the ‘lads’ at Screwfix who recommended a bitumen paint to repair my shed roof (it worked) and to dental hygienists, Catherine and Remy, for giving me a stress ball to squeeze! I may have done a wing walk, been cave diving and run across Wales barefoot, but nothing makes my knuckles quite as white as sitting in a dentist’s chair.