autumn in the early morning...

R left for work early yesterday and it was such a beautiful morning I decided to get up too and take the camera out for a walk.

It was one of those cool, misty mornings and as I left the house at about 6.45 the sun was just coming up...

The hedgerows are full of colourful seeds and fruits at the moment; berries reddening on the holly...

,,,juicy black elderberries...

The leaves are definitely beginning to change colour...

I'm always amazed at how quickly the sun rises - within just a few minutes of leaving home it had cleared the horizon and was beginning to feel warmer on my face.

I wandered down the country lanes; love the name of this one - do you ever wonder about how these little roads get their names?

The dew was sparkling in the sunshine...

Acorns and chestnuts on the trees...

(we used to say these were the fairies' bowls when I was little...)

I was keeping half an eye out for sloes - sloe gin has been on my 'must do' list; partly because I've finished the last of the bottle in the cupboard (!) and partly because I thought I might do some small bottles for pressies this year.

I walked out of one end of the village and round between the fields. At that time in the morning it was so quiet and peaceful - I didn't see a single car and only a couple of early cyclists and dog walkers. What was really noticeable was that as the sun rose the sounds of the birds came to life too.

Back in the hedgerows, no sloes! But bright red rosehips...

...and lots of blackberries...

...some a bit past their best already. Then finally...

...purply, black sloes! Only, if I'm honest, I was a tadge disappointed with these. You don't really get a sense of scale in this photo but these were teeny! About the size of a fat raisin! And some already a bit wrinkly looking. I picked a few but found myself thinking I'd need a lot to fill a bottle of gin! And pricking the skins of loads of tiny sloes is tedious in the extreme. Resigned to having to forage elsewhere I carried on with my walk.

Some of the leaf colour is already fabulous...

The photos don't do it justice, but the fields and verges were kind of shimmering in the low sunlight...

Then as I walked back into the village, I spotted these bad boys...!!

Huge juicy sloes, perfect!

In the same short strip of hedgerow, I also came across these...

We've always called these mirabelles or bullaces, but I've just been looking them up and the description of bullaces sounds more like the fat 'sloes' in the last photos! I'm pretty sure they were sloes, because the juice was enough to give you a face like you'd been sucking lemons! Usually these little plums are sweet fresh off the tree but they are obviously not quite ripe enough yet because one of these made me screw my face up! Bit tart yet!!

Pleased with my haul, I wandered back through the village; funny how you take things for granted - I don't usually notice how pretty it is...

Back past the little church and the allotments...

Back home, the sun was fully on the front of the house by this time and the virginia creeper was looking lovely...

I know this is a bit of a photo heavy post but it was so heavenly to have an hour or so just to absorb all the lovely things around me and wanted to keep them to remind me; hope you enjoyed joining me on my walk!

One last peep at my 'food for free'...

My next post will definitely be more of a crafty one - I finally finished the Noro socks and I'm well on the way with the quilt, so lots to show...

Til then, take care

Sx

farm, food and festival...

We have done well for festivals this year! Last weekend saw our last festival of the year (at least, as far as I know at the moment!) when we spent the day at 'Harvest at Jimmy's' - a really family friendly, small festival at Jimmy Doherty's farm near Ipswich. 

This is not just your average music festival, but has another stage for chefs to demonstrate their thing, a whole area dedicated to the small people (even without little people, I love to see them just having fun here) and all the things that are usually on the farm - a butterfly house, rare breed pigs, goats etc and beautiful woods to wander through. 

The weather had been a bit hit and miss all week but Sunday looked more promising and when we arrived at the site this was what met us...

Cloudy, but enough blue sky and sunshine to throw shadows, a huge helter skelter and a field of teepees!

Doesn't take much to get me excited, I was ready to jump up and down by this point! When exactly are you too old for helter skelters...?!

Jimmy's has fab food - so much of it you spend ages just wandering around trying to make a decision but definitely a cut above your average burger van!

Take a look at these...

How cute is this caravan?! And this van I saw earlier in the year at the VW festival...

I so love everything about this stall - it was really windy but they still had their table cloths and teapots; fab! 

Flags just typify festivals for me...

Bright colours, flying freely in the blue sky - I couldn't stop taking photos of them! (its ok, I'll spare you the torture of my flag-thing!)

I have to confess, I had never heard of Mr Tumble...if you have little people you may well know of him, but mine pre-date teletubbies even so this guy on the main stage was a new experience for me! He must have had several hundred families singing and bouncing up and down in unison! Probably not my choice for an evening's entertainment but great fun to watch people watching him, if you know what I mean, and definitely got the happy feeling going!

Infectious enough for these three unlikely blokes to join in with the hokey cokey...

Sons 1 & 3 and hubby, getting into the swing - with only a minimum amount of alcoholic inducement!

The farm is a really lovely setting - in a pretty rolling bit of countryside and with enough space to not feel overcrowded even with several thousand people milling around. Jimmy's is famous for its pork (cover your ears piggies!) and there are lots of very happy looking pigs around...

I know exactly how this Mummy feels! (there were lots more babies running around!). The boys were awful - no qualms about talking hog roast in front of these young ears!!!

There were little demonstration areas around the place - this was outside the 'food safari' tent...

I just loved these collections of quirky things artfully placed!

There was a chance to follow the rainbow to find the fairy queen...!

I resisted the temptation to join the queue of little people (some of whom were dressed as mini-fairies) to see the fairy queen but I enjoyed the walk through the woods!

And I couldn't resist the butterfly house...

This one never stopped flapping its wings - so fast that they were just a blur!

And these two really got into the festival mood with the help of some girls and some face paint!

My lovely boys!

Just a couple more things to show you...

Remember the plum harvest? I had forgotten all about the jar of plums in brandy which the boys fished out of the cupboard to be bottled. Its pretty clear already and delicious! Just need to leave it to mature now!

And this is completely unconnected to anything in this post but fell in love with this cup and saucer in a charity shop on Saturday...

Much to R's disgust...he thinks we have more than enough cups and mugs as it is! I actually got it thinking it might make the basis of a present but it's so right for peppermint tea!!!

And finally, another snippet of my current WIP (well one of...)...

I'm loving this project!

More next time!!!

Sx

where to begin???

I seem to have a whole list of things I want to set down in this bloggy record! Time has been running away with me again of late and I have a bit of a 'queue' of things to write about. In the interest of not being too muddly, I think I may have to make and effort to get organised and write a couple more posts this week - I want to tell you about the latest festival trip, the garden and my current crafty project but if I do it all at once it will be a very lonnnnnnng post!

So, maybe today I'll catch up with garden news - otherwise my 'mid-month pic' will really seem out of place.

Autumn is definitely showing its face - the mornings and evening have got a real nip now and we are creeping all too fast back to the going to and from work in the dark situation that fills me with gloom. Having said that there are some lovely colours in the gardens and hedgerows; this is the one time of year when I really feel for my youngest son who is colour blind and cannot distinguish the subtle range of autumn hues that are beginning to appear.

We have a Virginia creeper on the front of the house which I must take some photos of - it is already turning crimson at the edges and will soon be completely red. Last year, it looked beautiful, then we had a really windy night and suddenly all the leaves were gone!

The leaves of the false acacia in the back garden are beginning to fall and are laying like strewn confetti on the grass. From a distance (as always!) there doesn't seem much colour in the flower beds but actually there are little patches - one late sunflower, the heads of the ice plants (sedum??) turning pink and these little lilac daisy-like flowers...

This plant always looks a bit umpromising (and regularly gets threatened with the chop by R who can be a bit ruthless with the secateurs!) then suddenly opens into these pretty flowers that last for ages at the end of the summer.

The geraniums continue to do their blowsy thing...

These really provide a shot of brightness and cheer up even a grey day.

The rowan tree has loads of berries this year...

and the apples on my little tree are the rosiest red...

These are really delicious, crisp apples but I always think they look like the sort of red apples Snow White was tempted with!

We still have lots of tomatoes ripening...

I haven't had to buy tomatoes at all this summer and we have had plenty of sweet juicy tomatoes straight from the garden. It has to be said that at the rate the summer is disappearing it is entirely possible that these won't all ripen! I am sensing a green tomato chutney in the pipeline...!

I feel as though the summer has just whipped by - there have been a few nice days but, with no proper time off work since Feb/March time, I just seem to have missed it all. I hate the thought of winter being round the corner - I seem to spend months just being cold - but I do love the sense of 'bounty' at this time of year. I must try to get out for a walk with the camera sometime soon - the hedgerows are just full of wild brambles, heavy bunches of elderberries and fat, dark sloes crying out for a drop of gin! Perhaps that should be my aim for this week...?

Just a sneaky peek at what I've started making this weekend...

No prizes for guessing what this is going to be! I'm very excited about it because this is a bit of a new venture for me - as always something of a 'learn as you go' project, but more of that another time!

Til next time then...

Sx

craving colour...

Just a couple of things that have been feeding my colour habit in recent weeks...

This pretty doorway was in a courtyard full of crafty shops in South Derbyshire, when we nipped up to see middle son a couple of weeks ago. In my dreamy head I'd love to have a front door like this... (if someone else could do all the watering in hot weather...!)

And still going on the Noro socks...

This picture wasn't taken in very good light so the blues look very dark - in reality its probably all a bit lighter. These are taking me ages because I've had so little time to knit - just need one good evening and they'll be done. I was going to give them to my Mum for christmas but I really like them so I might have to keep them! Plus the cast on in this yarn seems to be a bit tighter so the tops have a tightish line - Mum has a slight tendency to swollen ankles so tight bands at the top of socks are a bad idea! Does anyone have any tips for casting on top-down socks to avoid this? Next pair must be for someone else!!!

Sx

August...where did it go?

It seems completely impossible that it can be September! I don't know if its because I've had my head in books for the last month or so or because I haven't had a summer holiday but this month I have managed the least photos and the least amount of blogging time since the beginning of the year. 

It has actually left me feeling a bit flat - in part maybe because the leaves are definitely beginning to turn and the evenings (actually and the days!!!) are noticeably cooler; although I do love the autumn, I just don't feel ready for it yet! I want more balmy evenings and light mornings! And I soooo dread the gradual slide into winter. I am going to have to make a conscious effort to keep going out and doing nice things as it becomes so easy to slip into a kind of twilight world when the beginnings and ends of my working days are in the dusk.

I think I also feel a bit frustrated that I seem to have been unable to get much else done lately - hardly any crafty stuff (although I am nearly there on another pair of socks - more another time!) and precious little in the way of me time.

This weekend, I have just had a weekend away in London but a bit bitter sweet - a lovely fun get together but to say goodbye to a dear friend who after 20 years studying and working here is today moving back to Malaysia to begin a new life. She has been here longer than at 'home' and I know it was so tough for her to get on that plane on her own and leave her UK life and friends behind. Of course, we are all still here and the internet makes it much easier to maintain a connection (hurrah for skype!) - but there is a 7hr time difference so it all takes a bit of planning and it will be different from the impromptu evenings we have tended to have here. It seems incredible to me that we waved her through departures at Heathrow at about 1030 and that she will still be up in the sky for another hour or two - 13 hours in a plane! However, we are hoping to have a mass trip to Kuala Lumpur in 2013 for a certain 40th birthday, so that is something to be planning for.

I failed miserably at the scavenger hunt this month, but thought I might as well post the few I have...

The list Kathy set was always going to be a challenge in Norfolk (& with time and opportunity at a premium) and there were several I didn't manage at all - a fountain, a boat (unbelievable! I live in Broads country!), mountains (seriously? Have you seen Norfolk?!), street food (honestly, I have been like a hermit this last month, I've eaten more toast and marmite than is normal for a woman of my age...), market day (my trips to the market have been entirely functional ones), bread (I know, all that toast! I really should have managed this one!)... I should have taken a picture of son 3's post 18th celebration dyed hair for something bizarre - it is bright red, and as he is such a tall skinny rake he looks a bit like a swan vesta match! The sport, I thought of today when I was watching a friends 18 year old compete in an athletics meeting but then I realised it is September and figured I couldn't cheat. So all in all, pants effort! Note to self...must try harder this month!

I did get... a picnic...

...taken over to my Mum's to eat in a sunny spot in her lovely garden.

A festival or funfair...

This was kind of a bit of both as it was a scary-looking ride at the funfair which was at the Whitenoise campervan festival that I blogged about earlier in the month. The kids on there seemed to be enjoying it...!

Fabric...

Also at said VW festival - a whole stand of lovely fabrics to add prettiness to you campervan!

And something ancient...

I couldn't make a decision, so to make up for my rather feeble efforts this month, I give you three 'ancients'! I loved the collections of vintage 'stuff' on offer to give the refurbished VWs some original character but couldn't quite help feeling a bit of love for this rather battered old van too!

It has to be said 4 out of the 12 is a pretty poor show - can only get better next month!

Til next time then

Sx