St Luke's little summer

Today the 18th of October is the feast day of St Luke, the writer of the Gospel that bears his name and patron saint of artists and doctors.  According to ancient writings Luke was not only a writer, but a Doctor.  St Paul referred to him as 'the beloved physician'.  Tradition also suggests that Luke was also an artist who painted a portrait of Jesus' mother Mary.  

St Luke's day was traditionally a day when girls could foresee who they might marry.  They should put a mixture of spices, honey and vinegar on their faces before going to bed and say the rhyme 'St Luke, St Luke, be kind to me, In dreams let me my true love see'.  I've also read that this day was also known as Dog Whipping Day when all the stray dogs were whipped out of the town.  Not quite as pleasant an idea!

Trees changing colour in the park

I thought of the old saint this morning when realising just how warm the weather has been the last couple of days.  This last flourish of warm calm weather was often called St Luke's little summer, the calm spell before the autumn frosts and winds start to blow.  Last night we left the back door open until later in the evening and listened to a robin singing in the dark.  He sang so sweetly to no one in particular but I like to think he sang for me.

As it was dark I couldn't get a picture, so here is our robin singing earlier in the year

Wildlife at Hazel Cottage

Autumn seems to bring out the wildlife here at Hazel Cottage.  We were particularly happy to see a squirrel is back in the garden.  Seeing as we have a large hazel tree we were a bit sad when we seemed to be without a squirrel for a while.  But the lure of the hazelnuts brought one back into the garden - he is spending every single moment running about the garden at high speed hiding food.  The squirrel hides nuts everywhere - no doubt we will find several hazel trees in time!

The robin is also far more visible at this time of year - after his summer hiatus.  We see him every day now, and hear him constantly tik tik tiking.

Of course the other wildlife are the hundreds of spiders all over the garden.  I tried taking some close up pictures...

 

For someone who is a little afraid of spiders, I do find them really fascinating as well. 

 

They appear to work so very hard at building their webs this time of year that I end up feeling guilty if I have to break a bit of web.  Insane especially when sometimes I have to break a web to get out of the back door....

Listen! The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!”
Humbert Wolfe

Such variety, such beauty, such magnificence: A walk in the woods

We had a lovely autumnal walk in the woods last week when we were away.  The trees were so large that when it rained we barely felt more than a drop.  The leaves had already started to fall but the weather was still warm and slightly clammy. We walked for a couple of hours, enjoying the peace and admiring the beauty of it all.

There is always a sense of permanence and timelessness in a woodland for me.  As if nothing has ever changed for hundreds of years.  And yet, there is a constant change of the seasons - the trees were resplendant with leaves still, but in a matter of weeks, they will change colour and fall.   The early morning mists of autumn have begun already.  The spiders webs decorate every tree, hedge and washing line and the nights are indeed drawing in.

When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.
Lord Byron

Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

John Muir

Now Autumn's fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.
William Allingham

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?
E. M. Forster

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.

Edwin Way Teale

I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence? 

James Thomson

Welcome to Autumn...

Yesterday was the Autumnal equinox - the day when day and night have approximately equal length. After this date, the days shorten each day until we reach the shortest day of the year in December.  At Hazel Cottage, its not only the leaves that are beginning to fall off the trees, we are in the middle of the hazel harvest (or glut!).  The spare bed is covered with hundreds of hazelnuts, drying gently.  Each day another handful (or basketful) falls from the skies.  We are now looking into nice ways of using them up.

The word autumn has French origins, the older English term for this season is 'fall', a contraction of "fall of the year".   The pilgrim fathers took the old word with them to the Americas (fall is still used today in the USA), but it gradually died out here in England and was replaced by autumn.

Autumn or fall is one of my favourite times of year - a sense of new beginnings, of harvesting nature's bounty.  The trees will start to change colour, the spiders are making webs everywhere and the seeds of the horse chestnut tree (known as conkers) start to hurtle to the ground.  The weather is warm and still again after several days of cooler weather, and we've had little flocks of starlings streaming into the garden for the last week or two.  The woodpecker is still with us, which is so exciting and I am impatient to plant out my tulip bulbs, but I really must wait until October at least. 

Conkers

“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonise. The birds are consulting about their migrations, the trees are putting on the hectic or the pallid hues of decay, and begin to strew the ground, that one's very footsteps may not disturb the repose of earth and air, while they give us a scent that is a perfect anodyne to the restless spirit.  Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.”
George Eliot

Apple jam and patchwork hexagons

I decided to make Apple Jam with the apples from our tree (and some from a friend who is inundated this year).  I would usually make chutney with apples, but we have made a lot of marrow pickle and still have some left over chutney from last autumn.    

I found this recipe which is an old recipe http://recipewise.co.uk/apple-jam-victorian-recipe.   

It is pretty simple and I found a handful of blackberries from the freezer to add the bit of colour and taste they mentioned, as I didn't have loganberies.

Apples from our tree

The slightly tedious bit - peeling!

The ingredients in my new jam pan

Ta-da! Fourteen jars of apple jam! 

We found a rather dull modern pine wall shelf on eBay recently and Mr C did a lovely job on painting it and making it look fabulous.  It now sits on our bedroom wall in a little corner filled with old small books that were scattered about the house.

I've started putting together some hexy patches to make a patchwork picture.  I've got an idea what it will look like of course, and if it works well I will post a picture later on.  I've just started to make the hexagon patches and still have a way to go before I can sew them together.

 

Its now September and the weather has cooled down a little, especially first thing in the morning and last thing at night. We seem to have a bit more rain too, which is very welcome.  The most exciting thing in the garden at the moment are the visitors we've had.  We saw a thrush on our bird feeder several times last week and last night we kept on hearing a loud kik kik kik sound from the garden.  It sounded different to the usual blackbird and robin sounds we hear, so I stood at the back door looking to see where it was coming from, and from the top of the large fir tree next door was what we think was a Great Spotted Woodpecker!  I managed to take a poor picture by zooming in madly, which helped us identify it.  This was wonderful news!

On the cusp

Soon it will be September.  The weather is still rather warm here, and the evenings are not yet cool.  In the garden the robin is back making a racket after his summer quiet spell.  Unlike last year, every fruit is abundant and bursting with life. 

The brambles are fruiting early and unlike our one lonely apple on the tree last year, this year we have fifteen!

I'm not sure what these beautiful berries are, although I assumed they aren't edible just in case.

The large rose bush is still flowering madly after months of  activity.  I shall miss being able to bring in some blooms to put in the house.

Summer is getting past its glorious best, and everything in the garden looks a little overblown after all the exertion and growth.  Only the sedum looks like it is on the verge of something lovely.  The tomatoes are slowly ripening, we have had a much better crop this year and we have a number of courgettes ready which I think we will make into soup.

When summer gathers up her robes of glory, and like a dream of beauty glides away. 

 -  Sarah Helen Power Whitman

Late summer vintage

I wonder if I'm the only person who can walk around a Vintage Fair and think most of the stock is too modern?  At a fair recently there were so many 1950s items there, and I kept on thinking that was a little modern but found it rather lovely at the same time.  Then we walked along a little and found tables with 1970s kitchenware that I remembered from my childhood and I wondered how my childhood days are now deemed to be 'vintage'!  I guess time moves on and it doesn't help that I'm not a fan of orange and brown plastic and yellow formica.

In the end, I only bought the one item, a 1920s Chocolate tin which I hope to use in my sewing area for buttons.  I'm also hoping to look through my Mum's button tin, which includes a lot of old buttons that belonged to my Nan.

Most of the items we buy for Hazel Cottage are the first half of the twentieth century, ending about the same time as the end of the Second World War and centred on the 1930s.

There is something so very beautiful to me about the 1920s, 30s and 40s pottery, something so homely about old baskets and hand made cushions and wing arm chairs.  

 

In our kitchen, our vintage items are used alongside the modern ones as they should be, not displayed in glass cases to look pretty.

 

To me, old leather suitcases, stone jars, old books, embroidered tablecloths, patterned rugs and ticking clocks just signify home.  Much as I like shabby chic (as long as its not 'aged' too much) and Cath Kidston in small doses, you cannot beat the beauty and design of the real original items that are not only better designs, but have been used and loved over the years. 

And, if those items are available in charity shops, eBay, jumble sales and car boot sales, then all the better.

 

Even our garden has given up some lovely antique items that were dropped by previous inhabitants of the house.  In addition to a vast array of broken up Victorian and early 20th century pottery, we have found buttons whilst digging.  I wonder what we will leave behind?