Fruitfulness, Bric-a-Brac and a Painting in Progress

We’ve had some very wet days since my last post but our garden needed it. Sunny spells have relieved the grey skies in between showers.

The early Autumn flowers are a delight. Rudbeckias glow even on the dullest day with their golden petals and near black cones. I brought in a few to fill a lovely jug. I added a few orange Pelargoniums and stems of scarlet berried Cotoneaster.

The Asters will soon follow. One is already in flower but the main show has yet to develop. One of my favourites. I love daisy flowers of any kind but the soft mauves of Asters are particularly pleasing. Fuchsias seem to be responding well to cooler, damp conditions. Mine are in pots and looking very pretty right now.

It’s been a wonderful year for fruit. Bumper crops of apples and pears have kept my husband, Allan, busy reaching up into our enormous trees to harvest them. Good ones have been stored away in the shed for later use. I’ve given several bags of them away and I’ve frozen sliced cooking apples for stewing later.

I’ve mentioned this before but I always find someone who doesn’t know. Salted water is far more effective, cheaper and convenient than using lemon juice to prepare apples. It prevents them from browning before cooking. I put a couple of tablespoons of salt into a bowl of water and slice the peeled and cored apples in to it. It’s best to swish them around with each addition so the salt covers the surfaces. I simply drain them when they’re all prepared and cook or freeze them straight away. The apples don’t taste salty and when I thaw them they don’t brown.

Plums are ready now too so they’ll be stashed in the freezer to make plum and apple jam in Winter.

I’ve never seen our Hawthorn berries so fat and bright. They hang like scarlet jewels on the trees. Such a wonderful sight right now but can be a bit of a nuisance later when they drop. Cotoneaster berries are abundant too. Pretty and tiny on the prostrate branches.

I read that it’s a good idea to put out an overripe banana for butterflies. I can honestly say that this works. The butterflies have been queuing up to sip from them. We’ve had seven or more Red Admirals vying for a place on the bird table. It was difficult to photograph them. If I approached them they would scatter so I had to zoom through the window. I think you’ll see how popular the bananas are.

Runner beans are such generous plants. I only grow up to ten plants because the beans seem to appear overnight and it’s difficult to keep up. As I said last time, if the beans grow too big with swollen pods I remove the pink beans and cook those instead. I do try to pick beans while they’re small and tender though and I prepare them for freezing. I open freeze them on a baking tray before scooping them into a container. That way they don’t stick together and I can shake out as many or as few as I need when I want to cook some. Carrots have been good as well. Strongly flavoured homegrown ones fresh from the polytunnel are such a treat. They have an intense flavour which you simply can’t buy. Not easy to grow but well worth the effort.

A few Primulas are producing flowers. Gardeners are often surprised to see them at this time of year as they’re regarded as a Spring flower but if you think about it the conditions are similar in Autumn. Light levels are lower, it’s cooler and damper so the flowers pop up here and there. I have some vibrant orangey-red ones.

A few pretty things which caught my eye.

I’m working on a painting. I was a bit impatient to begin with. I thought it wouldn’t take long and I was a bit slapdash at first. Slightly disillusioned because it didn’t seem to be going well I decided that perhaps I should have chosen another subject. Soon realised however that if I settled down and put some effort in I might come up with something reasonable. Using acrylic paints, I’m finding there’s a lot of detail with light and shade which is quite challenging. I will persevere. Here’s how it looks to date. Quite a bit more to do yet.

More of that when it’s finished. Where it will go is always a problem as our home is stuffed with my paintings.

As Winter approaches home becomes more appreciated than ever as we find comfort in our familiar things. I especially love my pottery which I’ve collected for many years from charity shops, antique fairs and from craftspeople in person.

This beautiful bowl with the cut out sections was made by my husband. It lives in the garden and is a weathered treasure. So is this large pot which we found years ago at a garden centre.

A few other bits which please me every time I look at them.

I hope your own treasures bring you as much pleasure.

Enjoy the damp fragrance of the season. With you again in two weeks time. Bye for now.