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