Autumn morning

I love this time of year, just as summer tilts over into autumn proper; the morning light is beautiful, the temperature just a shade this side of chilly, lovely to be out in. Up early for a bath this morning, so watched the morning grow light through the wide open window. The picture is of the village church, just up the road from the house- the photo was taken out of the sitting room window. Hope the weather stays good, we are off to the Stock Gaylard Oak Fair this morning, will probably take up most fo the day I should think. It's a lovely , local, small event, with top quality demonstrators, animals, crafts, local food and drink, music, etc; we've been to all three so far, this being the fourth. A bonus is that it's about 3 miles down the road from us too.

http://www.stockgaylard.com/oakfair.html

In the meantime, I might just fire up the kettle and make some tea in my new-to-me teapot! What a wonderful find at the tip,a real retro 1950's Midwinter teapot. Not eprfect, but I couldn't resist it, and it'll get well used.

Proud mother alert!

I've just had a call from Bean, who has gone into town to collect her exam results. She got A* for her English GCSE, which is a great achievement for her. She has just turned 17, and this was the first exam she has ever sat, having been home educated her whole life. She did the course as a part-time evening course at a local college and thoroughly enjoyed it; she had the support and encouragement of a great tutor, whom she took to straight away. Always looked forward to the classes, worked diligently and handed in all work on time, and it's paid off for her.
She did a single course and exam to ease her into the system of which she has never been a part; at the beginning of September she starts two courses - Moving Media & Image, and GCSE maths.

So - a great result, very chuffed mother here.:)

Squashes.....

Squashes are some of my favourite vegetables to grow - the squashes and pumpkins - you get so much for your money!! Easy and quick to germinate, they grow away fast, sending out dozens of trailing tendrils, stems as thick as your fingers and, ofcourse, the wonderful dinner plate leaves. All this - and flowers too! First the male ones, usually lots of them, standing on their own slim stalks, well proud of the stems. Next, hopefully, lots of female flowers with tiny swellings behind them, destined to become the gorgeous voluptuous fruits with promise of winter meals of soup and baked deliciousness. Colur as well, in all the hues of autumn; Turk's Turban with its orange and green stripes; Sweet Dumpling in retro green and cream; Hundredweight in bright child's crayon orange; teh smart stripes in sophisticated greens of the slim courgettes; yellows, golds, greens. browns, blues, creams..........Even if they weren't edible, I think I'd still grow them for their colours.
The squashes in the picture were planted on the edge of the potato bed this year, in almost pure goat manure. Rampant doesn't even begin to describe them......... :0) The yellow one is very visible, having hooked itself over the lower bar of the fence and growing away nicely, like a beautiful lantern, a rich shade of custardy yellow. I caught sight of the green striped one lurking beneath the leaves, unknown and secret until now, but there it was, almost the size of a football already! Freshly green with subtle striping around its plumpness. I have no idea of variety - they came out of a packet of mixed winter squash from Real Seeds (http://www.realseeds.co.uk/), just labelled Mixed Winter Squash. I have some more young plants to set out int eh greenhouse ;quite late, but I found a few odd seeds, and might get a small crop of fruits under glass before winter. Some I let trail over the compost heaps - an easy way to grow them as the compost and manure is already in place, teh leaf cover helps with weeds, and there is plenty of warmth generated by the heaps. My top two heaps are a bit awash with nettles at the moment, but I know there are squashes in there somewhere, so it will be a joy to uncover them when we cut down the nettles to dry for the goats. I think I have Turks Turban and Sweet Dumpling up there, but another trait of the squash family is its promiscuity - such a scarlet woman of a crosser that you can never be quite sure what will eventually turn up!

Of sourdough and spangles............

I've been meaning to master the art of sourdough bread for a while, but not done much about it since my first attempt a couple of years ago. However, never daunted, I unearthed my well-thumbed copy of By Bread Alone by Sarah Kate Lynch, and a while ago made a good go of the apple juice starter. Well, it was ready to go today, so here's the result


I hope it tastes as good as it looks! I love teh sharp tangyness of the crust and the chewy texture. Could easily become hooked on bread making; I make basic loaves quite well, but would like to be a bit more adventurous - watch this bread-shaped space!:0)

While the above was proving and baking, I hoiked out my lace making starter kit and got on with spangling the bobbins - very enjoyable, and I'm please with the result, but another 12 to go! Looking forward to getting soem thread on the bobbins and getting going.


Trying to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels, and hopefully removing them from the house all together, we are starting to run the Rayburn on more logs and wood; I always wanted a wood-fired stove, but thought it would be more like the big cast iron ones from Little House on the Prairie! Our Rayburn seems to run quite well on wood though, and it makes the fire very responsive, but we'll need to practice banking it up at night for the winter as it's the only source of ehating in that side of the house.

Peace

If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world

Chinese proverb

There is so much wisdom in this little quote, one of my favourites. If each of us took the time and effort to keep our souls and selves in order, the knock-on effect would be immeasurable.

My day in pictures................ part 3

I could only upload 5 pics at a time, so have had to show the pictures over 3 posts :0) Nice enough weather to get outside in a sleeveless t-shirt; we went on a forage, ostensibly to search out some edible mushrooms, but it's a couple of weeks early, I think. MrL and Bean found some giant puffballs in one of the fields, but they were well past their best. We found various little fungi in the woods, and the remains of a well chewed wood mushroom; one I was able to identify by book was the poison pie fungus; a couple of large logs came back with us, plus a few smaller sticks, and we found some worthwhile nut trees to go back to in a few weeks' time. Three roe deer spotted - two together, then a single one sitting very still in the wood as we walked alongside, around the wheatfield. Came back over the fields behind teh house and surprised the goats by jumping over the fence into teh chicken run.........:0) Inside for tea and chocolate and courgette cake, then sorted some wool out and made a rather good tea of mutton stew with parsley dumplings and runner beans, followed by poached pears with blueberry yoghurt. Off out in a minute to get the limoncello to round the day off nicely.

My day in pictures.................part 2