Ode to the Autumn

A Child's Calendar

November

by John Updike

The stripped and shapely Maple grieves

The ghosts of her d

eparted leaves.

The ground is hard,as hard as stone.

The year is old,t

he birds are flown.

And yet the world,In its distress,

Displays a certain l

oveliness---

Hello, I am so loving and embracing the seasonal change to Autumn and the slightly cooler air and cosy nights in, under snuggly crochet blankets and sipping on hot chocolate. I do ever so love Spring and Autumn and think they are my favourite seasons. I do hope you are enjoying Autumn or Spring wherever you are in the world? 

I thought I'd just capture some of the things we've been doing these past few days in picture form...

It did make me smile when my only magazine subscription for Country Living came through the post the other day as the front cover basically summarised how I was feeling and the mood of Autumn in my mind. Also, the fact that on Friday, Alice and I  baked our very first loaf of bread (a Paul Hollywood recipe) which was delicious with homemade chickpea and spinach soup.

Here's Alice having her very first lesson in kneading bread, I like the tip about using a little olive oil instead of flour on the kitchen surface to stop the dough from sticking, a lot less messy! 

We've also been indulging in apple and quince stewing, all picked locally at friend's houses. I love the fragrance of quinces...wish I could capture it in a bottle.

Making little shortcrust pastry pies with little hands adding the floral decoration 

Indulging in some of Rose Elliot's delicious vegetarian recipes. This was quick and easy to make, a broccoli, stilton cheese and pecan flan... very rich but delicious with steamed kale and a carrot, potato and lime mash!

Oh dear, it all seems to be about food..there goes my waistline....

We've also enjoyed woodland walks and collecting Autumnal leaves and natures offerings for our nature table.

Beautiful warmth from those colour's.

Crunching acorns underfoot...love it! Catching glimpses of foxes and squirrels also excite us, in fact I'm starting to get a little foxy obsessional (together with my birdy obsession!). I think this gorgeous new tortoise shell Fox brooch from Tatty Devine has tipped the balance into my love of foxi-ness embroidery, prints, jewellery etc. Don't you just love it? Check out their website for their new Autumn range here.

 We also managed to find some rather lovely 1920's pine doors on ebay to replace the yucky plain 1970's door someone put into our Victorian terraced house when they owned it. It all feels like our little home is finally coming together and we are looking forward to redecorating Alice's room after it's repaired, plastered, painted etc in the alcove where we ripped the airing cupboard and old boiler out. I thought I'd show you a pretty pic of the art nouveau style decoration on our new doors. We like a bit of character we do.They need a little sanding and polish for sealing but we're really excited about having these hung sometime soon.   

Last but not least I'm loving this month's Country living magazine and had to show you this page (sorry I hope I haven't spoilt it for anyone who might still want to indulge in this month's magazine). It totally summarise's my mood this October and had to tactfully be pointed out to Mr. that it's very hip and trendy to knit and not at all granny-ish ;0) in case he thought so.

Don't you just want to dive right in there! 

Happy Autumn y'all and see you soon xox