Autumn Equinox

Hello there! Despite my intention to catch up properly with blogging, the opportunity continues to elude me. I'm feeling decidedly under the weather, having caught a cold from one of the many sniffly teenagers at work, and yesterday had a cracked filling repaired at the dentist - ouch. It's not been the best of weeks so far. I feel sure it will improve. Anyway, enough of my moaning, and on to the subject in hand which is that today is the autumn equinox. This day is so-called because day and night are of equal length and it's the first day of autumn - yay! When I was about 12 I remember making my parents a 'Happy Autumn Equinox!' card decorated with carefully felt-tipped pictures of autumn leaves, squirrels, acorns, conkers and toadstools. I don't know why it never caught on!

Things are feeling more autumnal now. Dawn has been arriving later these days, and I have seen a few lovely sunrises. This was couple of days ago.

The conker tree opposite our house is yet to give up its bounty, despite the longing glances of school children on their way to and from school. Soon, I think.

One of my colleagues at work has a quince tree in her garden and has kindly given me these gorgeous quinces. The honeyed smell is wafting around the kitchen this evening.

 Clover has found some very warm spots of late-afternoon sunshine this week. Basking is definitely the word.

In their pot outside the back door the calendulas are resplendent in their orangeness (not sure if that's a word). They're perfect at this time of year.

Hope you've had a 'Happy Autumn Equinox!' today x

Golden Days

September is moving on apace now, and every day I see more signs of early autumn. Summer is slipping ever so gently away and the garden is slowing and winding down. Plants are looking quite tired now, and there are fewer flowers to find. We had a warm, cloudless day on Sunday and I went into the garden to pick fruit and a few flowers. The fennel has gone to seed and is a lovely greenish, mustardy shade of yellow. When I put a seed head on the garden table it made the most wonderfully defined shadow.

On our recent camping trip to North Cornwall I bought a couple of pottery items. I always seem to come home with a little souvenir from our holidays, not usually expensive and often free, like shells, pebbles or flowers for drying. This time, however, some tactile, hand-made ceramics called to me in the softest bird's-egg shades of cream and pale blue. I have quite a few items of pale blue stoneware at home. I just love that colour. Here's a pretty little jug with the acid-yellow fennel complementing that sky blue.

Next to it is a little candle holder which I also bought. Yes, that's in pale blue too - you know me well, don't you? It's an ingenious candle holder because it also has a little section around it which you can fill with water and flowers. 

I put fennel, pale lilac scabious and bright purple verbena bonariensis in it.

Here's how it looks without the flowers. Clever, isn't it? I know I'm going to make good use of this!

Out in the sunshine I picked some more blackberries and raspberries, and started to pick the apples which are beginning to fall from the tree. Our little apple tree has really done itself proud this year and produced masses of apples. It certainly produced a lot of blossom back in April, so it's not surprising. I've taken many of the apples to work for my colleagues, as I can't use them all and hate to see any to go to waste.

The raspberries are having a second flush and are absolutely enormous, and the blackberries are a thornless variety. I love blackberries. For me they epitomise this late summer/early autumn season.

Later that day we met up with my brother and his family at Stonehenge which is less than an hour's drive away. Despite never having lived far away from this world-famous prehistoric site we have never been as a family, although both P and I can remember being taken there as children (back in the days when you could wander around the stones and touch them!). My two little nephews loved running in and out of the reconstructed neolithic huts.

I must admit they looked quite cosy - this one even had a little porch.

This one is very sweet, and quite tiny. Its wizard-hat shape made me smile.

It's a half-hour walk to the stones from the visitor centre, so we walked there and caught the shuttle bus back. On such a warm, sunny day there were lots of visitors, many international, and everyone followed a walk which encircled the stones. 

It's hard to see this iconic place with fresh eyes, but it is an amazing sight.

We've driven past and sat in traffic jams on the A303 many times over the years, and watched the tourists walking around the stones. It always looked as if they were quite a distance from them, but we were pleasantly surprised at how close the path went.

Salisbury Plain is a vast open area of chalk downland, and Stonehenge sits solidly in this timeless landscape, a link to our long-distant past. I love its gentle grassy hills and big skies.

I'm glad we finally made it here. This golden Sunday afternoon was one to treasure.

(Before I go I just want to say thank you for all your lovely comments on my recent blog posts. This month is turning out to be much busier than expected, and my visits to blogland are a bit patchy at the moment. I'm hoping to catch up properly soon!)

September

Hello! Here I am again after a frantic few days back at work. It has been mad, but good to be back, seeing familiar faces and meeting new ones, staff and students alike. Despite the 'back to school' gloom that descends in the last few days of the summer holidays, it's nice to be back in a familiar routine and to be looking forward to the start of a new season. I haven't shown you my calendar for a few months, have I? Here's my September page, with its images of harvest time and fruitfulness.

I love September. I may have mentioned this last year... harvest time, golden light, abundant fruit, misty mornings, cooler days, darker nights. What's not to love? There's a lovely smoky smell in the air in the evenings now. It's the unmistakable smell of autumn, and it brings with a wonderful sense of anticipation. The garden has entered a mellow phase. The wild growth has slowed and the colours are rich and vibrant. I've been picking and freezing our blackberries for a couple of weeks now and have plans for them, along with a second flush of raspberries which have appeared.

The apples are starting to ripen and have begun to fall from the tree. I must start to collect them - I plans for them too.

The calendulas are flowering away in the brightest shades of orange, and I love them for it.

A week and a half ago P and I went for a walk along the river Avon as it flows west out of Bath. It was a hot afternoon beginning with sunshine and ending with rain showers, but we noticed how the landscape was easing gently into harvest time, late summer starting to give way to early autumn.

The river was very graceful, flowing past leafy parkland.

Flowers were sprinkled along the banks, visited by many bees and insects.

Shiny red hawthorn berries reflected the sunlight.

There were teasel seed heads.

And many elegant, shivery grasses and rushes.

We walked past a field of sweetcorn, or maize.

And past some rather hot cows resting in the shade of trees.

We finished where we started, near a beautiful waterside pub, and were glad of a rest on such a warm day.

Sitting at an outside table (with an umbrella) in the rain and enjoying its coolness, we ordered cold drinks. Lime and soda for me. In my backpack was a little harvest of my own, gathered from the tracks we'd walked along, a taste of early autumn.

( I intend to catch up with what you've all been up to over the weekend, as I've barely dipped into blogland this week - see you soon x)

Home Again

Hello there - thank you for dropping by, and for all the lovely comments which you made about my holiday posts. I continue to be delighted every time I get one and it means a great deal that you still enjoy stopping for a while at my blog.

After our hols P had a week of annual leave, so we had some lovely sunny day trips which I'm really looking forward to sharing with you soon, and since then I've been readjusting to the second half of the school holidays here. Our holiday was a week earlier than usual so I found that instead of two weeks left I had three afterwards. As is my tradition I made a list of house and garden jobs I want to get done before I return to work, and I did manage to get a few done last week which was gratifying, as well as spending a very companionable and creative afternoon in my shed with my friend J. I did some jewellery-making and J drew, and we had tea and a nice Blackberry and Apple Loaf. I would have shared a photo with you, but it was rather reluctant to emerge from the tin, and we ended up scooping it rather than slicing it. Ah well, not very photogenic but it still tasted good.

I also got out my preserving pan and took the redcurrants from the freezer. I was making redcurrant jelly, so I cooked them up until they were quite pulpy.

Then I used my new jelly-straining kit to drain the juice from the currants. This was much quicker than I expected and I resisted the urge to squeeze the bag which can make the jelly cloudy.

I also defrosted the blackcurrants and made them into jam.

Here's a small selection of the many jars I ended up with. Let's just say I don't think we'll run out of jam any time soon.

 I've spent a good deal of time out in the garden recently as the weather has mainly been dry and warm. It's brought out beautiful creatures like this Comma butterfly which kindly stayed still long enough for me to take some photos. My track record with wildlife photography isn't great, so I was very pleased.

Despite the garden needing a good deal of tidying and staking at the moment there are still some patches of colour. After repainting the garden shed at the start of the summer I am thrilled with what a good backdrop it makes for my pot of sweet peas and the phlox which grows next to it. I love the pink and blue combination.

The hydrangea's in bloom too now, and looks very pretty when it first opens in shades of pinky green

There is plenty of colour dotted around, like this velvety Rudbeckia 'Cherry Brandy' which I bought last week.

The bronze fennel is looking good now too, and I enjoy watching bees and insects collecting pollen from its flat blooms outside my shed window.

There are fiery colours too now in the form of crocosmias, both orange ...

... and red.  This one is 'Lucifer' and stands tall in the bed next to the fennel, a very hot combination.

I love the way this fabulously bright nasturtium is tumbling over our blue fence. I'll make a note to grow one here again next year.

The rowan tree's laden with berries now.

I like to sit under it (trying not to get bugs in my hair, as it is still quite a little tree). A cup of tea goes down very well here, I find.

Our apple tree is absolutely groaning under the weight of apples, and this is after I thinned them out. Perhaps I should've been more ruthless.

In the front garden the Japanese Anenomes are out in force under our window, and continue to delight. 

They are a wonderful value-for-money flower. This sea of blooms is the result of one small pot bought years ago. They spread amazingly well and bloom from late July into the beginning of October - what more could you ask?

Indoors I'm enjoying the herbs on our windowsill, especially the mint which I'm using to make fresh mint tea with, inspired by our recent holiday.

I shall leave you with an inexpensive bunch of tiny chrysanthemums which I bought over a week ago. Their soft pastelly colours are quite a contrast with all those hot colours out in the garden.

Right, I'm off to tackle the next thing on my list. Shall I start painting the bathroom or make curtains? A cup of tea first, I think. I'm off to put the kettle on. 

See you soon x