Today is the last day of August, so technically that means it’s autumn tomorrow! Well according to meteorological calendar; autumn starts on September 1st and finishes on November 30th.
However, if you follow the astronomical calendar, there are a few more weeks until autumn starts. For the northern hemisphere, autumn starts on September 23, the same day as the Autumnal Equinox. So there you go!
Where has the birdsong gone?
Its been about three weeks since the swifts have disappeared. They arrived late and it really felt like a fleeting visit this year, which is a real shame because they’re a highlight of my summer. These beautiful and incredibly active birds will be well on their way to Africa now, which is where they will spend their winter with a pit-stop through France and Spain.
Has anyone noticed that there is hardly any birdsong at the moment? It’s so quiet on the walks in the morning – even though I usually have my headphones in (catching up on The Archers), I can usually hear the mellow call of the blackbirds, the robins singing, the high-pitched call of the house martins or if I’m really lucky, the woodpecker.
No doubt they’ve had a busy summer looking after their young and once they have finished doing that, they begin to moult, which can take a few weeks. No wonder they’re all looking a bit scruffy at the moment; think I’d be quiet as well!
It won’t be long until the house martins and swallows will be leaving us – I’ll miss this sight in the mornings.
Baking
I love cooking, the Handsome One can barely get a look in when making supper in the evenings. He’s much more easy-going than me, I much prefer to be in control of what we eat. I know, poor bloke. I’m much more comfortable cooking, as it’s easier to make rectify mistakes but baking is much less forgiving.
As the bushes are full of ripe blackberries and the trees are laden with apples, I want to make the most of them, so it’s time to get the pinny on and make one of my favourite seasonal cakes, Apple & Blackberry Loaf.
I didn’t have much luck with this recipe last year. The first time I cooked it, we took it over to our house, which we were renovating at the time, so when we had a break from knocking down walls, we could unfold the chairs, have a cuppa and a slice of homemade cake. Unfortunately Bella had other ideas, which included eating the cake, but leaving us some of the tin-foil behind. Generous.
I then made it again when my parents came to visit to help us with the renovation, so this time as soon as it was cooked, we had a slice and saved the rest of the next day. However on this occasion, our family dog, Skye had other ideas. She didn’t even leave us any tin-foil. What I’m taking from this is that it’s damn tasty, so I will persevere and make it again!
Autumn
I’m not going to lie, I’m excited! This is definitely one of my favourite seasons; the sunsets, change of colour, weather (including those rainy days), lighting the wood burner and most definitely the food.
The way I shop definitely changes with the seasons, not only food shopping but definitely more candle purchases and more lotions and potions to keep my skin hydrated. Our neighbours actually bought us a Woodwick Candle that smells like autumn and you don’t even need to light it to get the scent from it. These candles are amazing; they burn evenly, smell heavenly and when you light them, they crackle like a fire!
I’ve just bought a ‘Miracle’ cream from Aldi that looks and feels suspiciously like Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream, which I love, so I’ll look forward to seeing how Aldi’s version compares. You can’t really knock their luxury range of candles and hand-wash, so let’s see how their (ethical) skincare range compares.
We visit our butchers most weekends to buy our meat that they source locally or buy it directly from the farm in our village, so from now on it’s going to be less burgers and BBQ items and more cuts of meat that we can cook long and slow. I created a lovely lamb shank recipe from Nigel Slater last year, so I’ll definitely have to give that a go and share the recipe. It’s divine.
Books
I’m falling behind slightly on my target that I set on Goodread’s to read 30 books in the year of 2018. I’m currently reading ‘In a Cottage in a Wood‘ by Cass Green, which is quite a gripping easy read as was ‘I See You‘ by Clare Mackintosh. I really enjoyed ‘I See You’ and definitely wasn’t expecting the twists that unraveled at the end of the book. If you’ve got a free hour or have a nice long bath planned, I can highly recommend this book.
Shed
It’s official, we have a shed! This is monumental to us because we our living room has been our shed. It has work tools, gardening equipment, flooring and so many other things that I can’t even remember filling to room.
We can’t begin to transform the front room until we can empty it. The room is actually quite large but at the moment we are only using about a quarter of it, so I can’t wait for us to get started in there.
Although I am struggling with how it’s going to look. The only finished part of the room is the chimney breast, which is painted in Down Pipe by Farrow & Ball, so the colour of the walls will have to compliment this dark grey / blue colour. I’m thinking Dimpse might be nice, but we really need to test some colours to find out what we both want.
But this is all the fun, finding the right colours!
Have a good weekend!
A xx
Abi in the Garden 