Autumnal equinox

Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.

By Gerard Manley Hopkins

All roads lead to Autumn

I'm sorry we've been so terrible at posting on the blog.  Life and work has somewhat overtaken us.  I will be back properly very soon.  In the meantime, some photographs showing something of what we've been up to since we last posted.  The last time we posted it was still summer really, and now we are most definitely into Autumn, my favourite time of the year...

Finally finished my patchwork picture!

Watching the leaves change

 

A much needed holiday in beautiful Cornwall

Bought a new (old) vase

Helped with the church Harvest festival flowers

Made even more green tomato chutney

Harvested a pumpkin, some hazels and a glut of runner beans and tomatoes from the garden

Made amaretti biscuits

Walked through the mist

Lit our wood burner for the first time!

It is such  a wonderful time of year, the leaves change colour, mornings are often misty and are getting cooler each day.  Although the outside world is often frantic and busy, autumn is the time for being at home as much as possible and enjoying the change in season. 

 

The Danish have a wonderful word 'hygge' which basically means cosiness but sums up how I feel about Autumn.  It is tough to translate, hygge means creating a nice, warm atmosphere, being comfortable and cosy.  Lighting a fire, burning candles, eating and drinking with friends and family, contentedly are all part of hygge.

Quince Jelly and Dr Who

Its such a busy time of year, it feels frantic at times, and I feel as if I have ignored the blog for a long time, even if it has been less than a fortnight.  We have made our Christmas pudding which now sits in the larder until Christmas and I'm hoping to make our Christmas cake this coming weekend.  We had an unexpected donation of quinces this year, which I made into some lovely quince jelly.  Here are the before and after pictures!

It was more fragrant and subtle than the japonica quince jelly I've made beforehand.  I'm even starting to wonder if I could find room in the garden for a quince tree...  On another unrelated note we held a family party to celebrate 50 years of Doctor Who and made everyone dress up.  We also put together some Doctor Who related food:-

Cassandra Lasagna

Adipose marshmallows and jelly babies.  We also made a tardis cake!

It was such fun.  I found most of the food ideas on line.  We have our local Christmas Fayre this coming weekend, which takes up a lot of time and energy.  After that however, I hope the frantic nature of the season will lessen a little and we get a chance to relax and enjoy the season.  If only I had a clue what to buy anyone for Christmas!

Let’s approach Christmas with an expectant hush,
rather than a last-minute rush.
 Mother Teresa

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

The trees are starting to glow

Autumn is starting properly now, the leaves on the trees are starting to turn all kinds of colours and dropping to the ground with the conkers and acorns.  On a beautiful autumn day like today the leaves look like they are glowing against the blue sky.

 

I don't think any photographs can do this time of year justice, let alone my quick snaps but I can't stop taking pictures when the light is this beautiful.  Autumn feels like nature's last hurrah, a burst of brilliance and beauty before the majority of trees and plants die down for winter.

 

I love walking through the leaves in Autumn, and am often the only person in the park picking up the conkers as the children walk past wondering what on earth I am doing.

I have a small collection of conkers on my desk at work - they remind me of things that make me very happy, being on a walk on an autumn day in the fresh air, being in our garden and listening to the birds chattering in the trees.

The morns are meeker than they were,
The nuts are getting brown;
The berry's cheek is plumper,
The rose is out of town.

The maple wears a gayer scarf,
The field a scarlet gown.
Lest I should be old-fashioned,
I'll put a trinket on.

Emily Dickinson

Full circle - Hazel Cottage one year on...

Today marks a year since we first posted on our blog.  I can't believe its been a year since we started sharing our experiments with growing vegetables and taming the garden, making nice homemade things and buying old bits and pieces.  This time last year I posted all about our adventures with hazels, courgettes and damson jam.  We had a glut of courgettes and apples last autumn, and a wonderful bag full of damsons from someone at work which I made into jam.

This year we've less hazelnuts, our courgettes did nothing and the person who donated the damsons has not been forthcoming.  Luckily we've been given courgettes and apples from family and friends, and so the chutney season has begun, with one batch made a couple of weeks ago and more being made this coming weekend.  We also experimented and after collecting half a kilo of hawthorn berries last weekend, we made Saucy Haw Ketchup (a River Cottage recipe).  I will report back on what it tastes like!

Haw berries

 
We've picked lots of blackberries and been given some as well, which are waiting for me to make into jam or jelly.  I'm looking at recipes and hoping to make it soon.

These aren't the ones we picked!

During our recent holiday we went to Cotehele House in Cornwall, they had wonderful orchards we were a little jealous of...

Now we are back from a week away, we are planning for the Autumn and Winter - what preserves to make, when to make the Christmas pudding, and what to plant for the year ahead.  I hope to have some time during the dark winter nights to start some craft projects, including starting a hexy patchwork quilt.

The seasons roll on and are constantly changing but the beginning of Autumn is a special time to me.  Just reading the wonderful posting about September that Sophie made on Fading Grace and the posting Maria made on Rosy Tinted Spectacles about kicking leaves made me excited about the Autumn to come!

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

Now is the time for the burning of the leaves

I came across this poem whilst I should have been working.  Its by Laurence Binyon and was written in 1942:

Now is the time for the burning of the leaves,
They go to the fire; the nostrils prick with smoke
Wandering slowly into the weeping mist.
Brittle and blotched, ragged and rotten sheaves!
A flame seizes the smouldering ruin, and bites
On stubborn stalks that crackle as they resist.
The last hollyhock’s fallen tower is dust:
All the spices of June are a bitter reek,
All the extravagant riches spent and mean.
All burns! the reddest rose is a ghost.
Spark whirl up, to expire in the mist: the wild
Fingers of fire are making corruption clean.

Now is the time for stripping the spirit bare,
Time for the burning of days ended and done,
Idle solace of things that have gone before,
Rootless hope and fruitless desire are there:
Let them go to the fire with never a look behind.
That world that was ours is a world that is ours no more.
They will come again, the leaf and the flower, to arise
From squalor of rottenness into the old splendour,
And magical scents to a wondering memory bring;
The same glory, to shine upon different eyes.
Earth cares for her own ruins, naught for ours.
Nothing is certain, only the certain spring.

Reflections...

Autumn always feels like a reflective time of year to me.  The weather is cooling down, the days are shortening and I start to take stock of everything around me. I've never bothered with new years resolutions and dislike the false bonhomie of new year intensely, but this time of year feels like a natural time to make new starts and plan ahead for the future.  We have spent the last few weekends harvesting, bottling and preserving and although we have used the harvest to make mincemeat, we are trying to keep Christmas out of our thoughts for a while yet and just enjoy the seasons as they turn. 

As I'm in a thoughtful mood, I thought I would share one of my favourite quotes, by Jerome K Jerome

"Let your boat of life be light, packed with only what you need - a homely home and simple pleasures, one or two friends, worth the name, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog, and a pipe or two enough to eat and enough to wear, and a little more than enough to drink; for thirst is a dangerous thing."

Michelmas madness

During the past week was the day of Michaelmas, the Feast of St Michael and traditionally the beginning of Autumn. The "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" according to Keats, although he may have had second thoughts if he'd been around this Michaelmas. 23C at Hazel Cottage (that's 73F in old money) and bright blue skies!  

Venturing forth into the garden at this time of year you run the risk of walking smack bang into one of the dozens of spider webs that the crab spiders spend each night spinning across our gateways, paths and hedges. We've taken to keeping a stick by the back door so we can clear a path.

In the veg garden we pulled the last few beetroots and carrots. The beetroot has been a great success despite a dose of beet leaf miner early in the season. We've several jars of lightly pickled ones in the store cupboard and the rest went into chocolate and beetroot cakes. Cabbages, onions, squashes and the unending supply of silver beet are still providing colour and even the courgette is making the most of the late warmth to provide a few more fruits.

Making mincemeat on an record-breakingly warm October day is quite a surreal experience.  All around us are piles of apples and pears and the japonica quinces and hazelnuts have taken over the spare bed to ripen.  As we chopped nuts and mixed spices into the glistening mincemeat, the sun was beating fiercely upon the window and it felt like mid summer.  Although its lovely to see people enjoying the sun, we can't help but yearn for more seasonal autumn weather.

Hazels, courgettes and damson jam...

We've lived in Hazel Cottage for a year now.  Much of the first few months was filled with painting and sanding and cleaning, but in the last nine months since the snow and ice we have been preparing, planting, harvesting, and turning that harvest into something edible.  We've done well for our first year here - we have grown and harvested broad beans, beetroot, radishes, salad leaves, apples, carrots, courgettes, silver beet, garlic, tomatoes, and cabbages, leeks, onions, and squashes are still growing.  I have established a culinary herb garden and look after the flowers and shrubs whilst he looks after our veg patch.

It has been a very creative time, I've got interested in baking cakes and preserving and even stretched my sewing talents to make some bunting.  We both love cooking interesting things and finding antique items for our home in car boot sales and antique shops and ebay.

It is starting to feel like autumn is creeping in now that hazelnuts are pouring off our hazel tree in their thousands and spiders have taken over every nook and cranny.  I've made chutney and damson jam and am planning to do several things with the ton of apples we helped to scrump (with permission!) recently. 

The advent of autumn makes us both very happy, with its promise of darker evenings and frost and the smell of apples and gently rotting leaves.  Our squirrel has appeared in the garden looking for hazelnuts and it wont be too long before the swifts disappear and the robin starts watching our gardening efforts again.