The Last of the Apples

Hello Friends!

Just the other day, I mentioned to someone how more like Winter our weather is right now. Much of the rest of the country is experiencing the hottest September on record, with a high of just over 34 degrees Centigrade {that's about 100 degrees F} recorded this very afternoon in Kent, while here in the west the winds are 40 mph and it rains buckets full. As the weatherman said at midday 'The South of England roasts and, typically, the west is cold and wet' which just about sums it up.  I'm glad he said 'typically' ~~~

As I type, there is a lamb casserole in the Crock Pot. Many of you know I am vegetarian, and this is for my Mum. I admit, it isn't complicated and that is just as well because I can't taste it to check for seasoning so I really have to wing it when I cook Mum's ready meals for the freezer.  I am such a chicken {not a pun} and buy trimmed and diced meat from the supermarket so that I don't have to handle it. I just open the box and put it in, along with stock and vegetables. It has been so long since I ate, or cooked, meat that I can't remember much about it now. This week, after it's quarterly defrosting and clearing out, the freezer is being well restocked with hearty, warming and nutritious casseroles {both meat and vegetarian}, as well as lots of Apple Sauce, fresh picked wild blackberries, and more. I love this time of year, preparing comfort food and puddings for the Winter freezer more than any other.

I was speaking to my neighbour over our shared fence this afternoon and she confirmed my suspicions that the blackberry pick just isn't as good as usual this year.  Summer was simply too cold and dry, and this is probably to blame. I'm still picking what I can daily and freezing them and will decide what to make once the season is over. However, if you have plenty and would like to get a really delicious recipe for a scrumptious Blackberry Roll then pop over to the blog of my good friend Martha Ellen's The Joy of Home with Martha Ellen where you will find the recipe ~~~

I have put off decorating, but as September is now midway through and the Autumn Equinox is in a few days, I think it is time to bring out the boxes of Autumn decorations.  I am honouring the imminent arrival of Autumn by making a recipe from my Susan Branch "Autumn" book called Cranberry Apple Crisp.  I am not sure if I can, due to copyright reasons, share the recipe, suffice to say {for my British readers} it is very similar to a Fruit Crumble, but if you own a copy of "Autumn From the Heart of the Home" by Susan Branch, you can find the recipe on page 95.

Here it is ~~~

Getting the ingredients together with my green glazed Mason Cash bowl 

I used frozen cranberries, thawed, and a few blackberries that were to hand ~~~

Ready to work in the butter with my pastry blender before finishing by hand ~~~

Ready to bake on a tray in case it leaks! I used wholewheat flour so it looks quite brown before baking

The finished dish 

Nicely layered with plenty of topping and fruits

This will be pudding tonight served with a warm custard sauce ~~~ delicious!

Not much is happening in the garden, but I'm hoping the blackberries will continue to produce some good fruits for the next few weeks ~~~ there are plenty of buds and blooms  ~~~

but already the leaves are starting to turn colour ~~~

Until next time
~~~Deborah 

November Days ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ I was shocked this morning when I came online to compose this entry to find I have not been here for more than a month! How quickly October flew by, blustering past in a flurry of falling leaves, tossed by the winds, and now November is already at the mid~point ~~~ we have celebrated Hallowe'en, and while I try hard to continue the celebration of Autumn that is always in my heart, the weather outside my cottage is a stern reminder that Winter cannot be far away ~~~ next week is Thanksgiving and then it will be Christmas; I find myself asking, in earnest, where has the year that we numbered two thousand and fifteen gone?

I feel a bit late to the party saying this, but ~~~

{I love the warm glow and bokeh effect of this image that was nearly dismissed, but even the most out of focus image can be used!}

We have had a mixed bag of weather, mostly quite kind, but now the Winter winds and wuthering weather descend. We are in the last throes of our first storm, Abigail, or A Big Gale as I saw fit to rename her!  As of this year, we now name all our storms in the same way as the hurricane system does, alphabetically. So, Welcome A Big Gale! Goodbye A Big Gale because the next big low, unnamed, is waiting ~~~ with another after that, and another one again ~~~ and the Jet Stream is keeping them well anchored above the British Isles ~~~

I turned another year older in October but we won't talk about that~~~but thank you all for your wishes that came in via the post {oh, I do love proper post} and also wishes on Facebook, Twitter, and by email ~~~

Here are a few photographs to remind us of the Autumn months just passed as everything winds down ~~~

The Rosemary is in full flower ~~~

It looks almost late Spring~like, don't you think?

but on the other end of the garden, the rose hips are turning orangey~red and tempting in the small birds to help themselves to a vitamin rich feast ~~~

As the Autumn sun drops lower and lower in the sky with each passing day, the evening skies offer up bejewelled magical sunsets ~~~

A surprise parcel in the post from a crafty friend ~ a talented lady ~ who made me this lovely Remembrance Day pop up Poppy Card and hand made felt Poppy pin to wear with pride as we remember the Fallen ~~~

"When you go home, tell them of us and say

For their tomorrow, we gave our today."

John Maxwell Edmonds

In the same envelope was some of my most favourite tea ~~~ and  Bigelow Tea are celebrating their 70th Anniversary and so they are foil wrapped in special commemorative envelopes, each with a vintage image from the Bigelow Tea archives ~~~

I took up a new hobby! These are the very first images of my Folk It! folk art painting projects ~~~ I really enjoy this method of creating something pretty ~~~

I won fifty pounds {£50.00} of Lakeland vouchers just by filling in an online survey from Crafts Beautiful magazine, and I'm treating myself to the Buttermere Hamper.  I have always wanted a luxury hamper for Christmas and this is just perfect.  I shall look forward to packing a delicious picnic in this hamper in the future ~~~ I do love a proper picnic, don't you?

To finish for today's little update, the December Country Living magazine is here, it has been for a few weeks now, and something to look forward to reading on a dark and dreary Autumn afternoon ~~~

Next time isn't so very far away, and there is a real treat in store for any Tasha Tudor followers coming ~~~

Sincerely yours
Deborah xoxo

In Raiment Bright She Comes Again ~~~

Gentle Reader ~~~ do you feel it? Do you see it? Autumn is slowly seeping into the world once more.  For the last four years, she seems to be sweeping in, wearing her golden cloak with highlights of orange, red, and rust, earlier and earlier. For weeks now, I have sensed her magical presence.  Having been deprived {thankfully} of the searing heat of Summer, I welcome her with open arms {although some small vestige of Summer would have been both useful and welcomed}

Across the Shire, farmers are bringing in the crops; ancient farmsteads stand with full fields of baled hay awaiting Winter storage ~~~

Across the Fields to Farmsteads and Baled Hay

The sun is noticeably lower in the sky, and although Autumn is not officially meant to arrive for a few more weeks, we are now eight weeks past the Summer Solstice and the changes are felt. The nights are drawing in and the days are shorter, the evenings longer. Curtains are drawn across the west facing window of my cottage earlier than a few short weeks ago, closing out the darkening skies and sealing in the cosiness.  More books are being read and already I feel the need to eat more hearty soups and stews than the lighter salads of Summer. The clouds that scatter and scud occasionally give glorious sunsets at which I marvel in their diversity ~~~

how quickly they shift and change in colour ~~~

Red Sky At Night ~~~ Shepherd's Delight

and in a moment, the blaze is quenched as the sun sinks into the wide Atlantic deep.

The bounty of the garden and the hedgerows is shifting up a gear ~~~

Ruby Red Apples Ripen in the Warm Sunshine of Late Summer Days

and we are all out foraging and feeding from the bounty we are given ~~~

My Fierce Competition!

Soon there will be blackberries, for the brambles are sprawling and bursting forth ~ the flowers nearly spent and green berries waiting to turn to those juicy, deep purple berries of deliciousness ~~~

Tight buds taken a few weeks ago

How delicate the petals and the colours.

Each sprig of blooms promises of many berries to come.

I'm ready for my close up now.

Gorgeous colours!

The "Arty" Shot!

A lone berry ripens, but soon many more will follow.

Earlier, I forgot to share the Angel's Fishing Rod Dierama pulcherrimum
photographs, so here is one now ~~~ gently bobbing in the breeze and all dripping with early morning dew ~~~

One of my favourite flowers in the garden are the Japanese Wind Anemones. This is the time of year they begin to fill the borders where the Summer flowers are faded past their best and the ruby red hips of roses have not yet reached their glory ~~~ Here are some of the early flowers {this year I have observed that there are, sadly, not as many blooms as normal, but the plants are nearly six feet in height. They have never been so tall, so I wonder what is going on?} ~~~

The Whirling Dervish

So, Dear Friends, I sign off this lovely, gently sunny Sunday morning, for there are things to be done today that I must not put off ~~~ and it is such a lovely day it will be hard to put my mind to tasks at hand ~~~ oh! fiddle~dee~dee! ~~~ the weather is too fine to spend indoors, so the garden wins today ~~~

Until next time ~~~
Sincerely yours
Deborah