Sunshine, Showers and Autumn Colours

October is often a lovely month with blue skies and the scent of autumn leaves. The lovely shades of purple on the asters, the glowing yellow of rudbeckias and the vibrant scarlet of berries on holly and hawthorn give so much pleasure.

September ended with wet weather but I ventured out and took a few raindrop shots.

Since then we’ve had some lovely days with azure skies, the whitest of fluffy clouds and a few tiny creatures enjoying the sunlight. There was a gathering of five shield bugs basking together on leaves and a brown moth was fluttering about under the strawberry netting. Fungi are popping up here and there as they always do at this time of year.

Ivy can be an awful nuisance but it’s really beautiful. Bees enjoy the flowers and the birds eat the berries during Winter.

Autumn colours are either mellow or vivid. Here’s a selection.

I’ve planted my Spring cabbages in the polytunnels. Although they’re hardy and will withstand frost I like to grow them undercover. They’re cleaner and ready a bit sooner than when they’ve been outside. Easier to control slugs as well. They’re tiny now but will grow slowly until February when they’ll put on a spurt. Lovely ball heads will have formed by May. Delicious shredded raw or steamed.

The tomatoes have been removed and composted. I had a bucket of green ones so I used some for green tomato chutney. Not done this before but I had so many this year. It’s not a very strong tasting chutney but I don’t like things to be wasted. The rest are in two baskets in a cool room. They’ll ripen gradually. I often keep tomatoes like this until New Year. No need for the paper bags or bananas that people often recommend. Tomatoes give off enough of their own ethylene gas in order to ripen.

I froze some of my red tomatoes. Although I no longer buy polythene bags because I discovered they’re not recycled I still re-use old ones. Here’s a tip for filling bags for the freezer: to keep the bag open put it in a jug or bowl and fold the edge back over the rim. Easy to fill it this way.

My little pepper crop has been ripening nicely. From green to black then to scarlet is so satisfying to see.

We decided to take a chance on storing the apples again in the shed. We’ve had problems with mice and rats but fingers crossed that they might not find them this year. I can’t freeze or preserve all of them and it’s useful to have fresh apples as well.

We have several compost bins because home-made compost is such an essential resource but I was amused to see that one we’d left open has lovely self-seeded alyssum flowers growing at the top! Plants are wonderful opportunists.

Time to start those knitting needles clicking. I often knit toys for Christmas. They’re quick and easy patterns and it’s lovely to put them together and see them come alive.

A couple of years ago I knitted an Autumn wreath using patterns from a favourite book. I still haven’t decided what to do with it. The project was more important than the finished item. It was a real pleasure to make. I’ll have to get my thinking head on and sort out my yarns to keep me happy again during those dark nights.

I hope you’re enjoying all that the season offers. With you again in a couple of weeks. Bye for now.