The park in the autumn light this morning
Hello! Firstly, what can I say…last week I was on holiday and I almost just skipped posting for a week, but then I thought ‘what a shame that people won’t be able to post their seasonal things because of me,’ so I just put up a very brief holding post, inviting you to contribute anything you had spotted that week that felt particularly ‘that week’, but not anticipating a great response. WELL…a great response was had! I am so chuffed. You all piled in with your beautiful seasonal observations anyway, and I can’t tell you how delighted I am. One of you said ‘you have trained us well!’ and yes! but really it means that this weekly post has momentum, and that you have made it a part of the ,rhythm of your lives, and that is really special. Thank you.
Secondly, a brief plea. I know that lots of you have bought my latest book, The Almanac 2024. Thank you! I know also that many of you then squirrel it away until the new year, as is right and proper. But can I ask you a favour? Would you take it out of the dark cupboard, have a little glimpse, and then write me an Amazon review? Annoyingly Amazon reviews count for a huge amount in this world and they are one of the best ways you can support authors, and you can leave them even if you didn’t buy your copy there. Here’s the link. Thank you x
Now! In this weekly post I write about three things I have noticed this week that felt particularly ‘this week’ and then you comment with yours. To comment, click on ‘read in browser’ in the top right hand corner of this email or on the ‘comment’ button at the end of the post. Everyone is invited.
We begin with a round up of your previous week’s comments, trussed up all pretty in italics and menu format, because I like them like that. Here’s your Week 35:
Picking blackberries and steeping them in gin, then cracking open the sloe vodka we made last November
Bringing in the glut of tomatoes and courgettes and saying ‘yes please!’ to more produce, plums, pears and even more courgettes from friends and neighbours
Turning all of the Victoria plums into Mulled Wine Plum Jam to give away to friends at Christmas
New stationery, planning meetings and INSET day. Then autumn warmth on playground duty
2kg of plump tomatoes from a friend, turned into a passata with a bulb of smoked garlic and a good handful of marjoram. End of August summed up in a sauce
a robin singing in the misty drizzle
The fallow deer gathering in Sussex woodlands, the ripening haws resembling clusters of rubies
Blackberries now dropping, melting, luscious and the garden jungly
Climbing up on to the rooftop terrace to sit and watch the moon
Fireweed going to seed in great fluffy plumes, with just a few bright pink flowers crowding at the top
Beautiful bright bouquets of dahlias and zinnias being sold in Clifton shops
Coming in after rain with leaf litter sticking to my shoes with avbasket of foraged apples
Making registers for new yoga classes
Spotting lots of different wading birds plus a magnificent marsh harrier day on the marshes on the Ribble estuary
Japanese anemones waving white outside my window
The harvesting of the oat field
Finally a clear Covid test
Preparing produce for a horticultural show
Spotting Venus and Saturn in the dawn gloaming, and a setting full moon in a lovely deep blue clear sky
Crows cawing on heavy-hanging apple trees while the early morning sun floods the meadows with light
Golden puddles on the forest floor and a smell of moss and warm decay in the air
Dahlias like bright jewels in the cut-your-own-flowers fields and huge potted asters being sold in every shop
Adding labels to school uniforms and eating outdoors while we still can
And we have three dispatches from the southern hemisphere. First, up two from Australia. Number 1:
Spring has definitely sprung early with a hot 29 degree day for the first day of September. While the warmth is lovely I am scared for how hot & dry our summer is forecasted to be.
And 2:
Some cleansing storms and so the blossoms are a little bouncier once again and the Galahs, King Parrots and Rainbow Lorikeets have been diving bombing the open gutters to slake their thirst and bathe all at the same time. Mating season has commenced for the Kookaburras - they are extremely chirpy, laughing non-stop it feels.
And from New Zealand:
Beautiful frosts here this week, hoping they will continue after today's delivery of compost for my veg bed!
Wonderful, wonderful, thank you all
Here’s my Week 36:
Sea blackberries
With all our recent talk of brambles I had to snap these sea berries. I tried them and they were quite hard and sour still and…could they have been salty? I might have imagined this, but anyway I thought they looked beautiful as the foreground to St Ives across the bay.
Pasties
We ate a load of pasties. We said we wouldn’t, and then we did. What can I say…
Salps!
I spotted a salp! There has been a huge bloom of these and they have been washing up on the Cornish coast all summer. Apparently they form long chains and glow in the dark, which must be absolutely magnificent to find yourself among. More here.
City sunflowers
On our return to this amazing September heatwave I spotted this sunflower. I always feel that this is the best setting for sunflowers. They don’t work in country gardens. Put them against a red brick wall or in the front garden of a Victorian terrace and they are much more at home.
The first ripe beefsteak
Finally! It was delicious.
That’s all from me. Please leave your comments below - what have you noticed this week that has felt particularly ‘this week?’
Oh and please buy my book, The Almanac 2024, if you haven’t already! Here are some links. And if you have, don’t forget those reviews.
Can’t wait to hear what you’ve been spotting.
This week, I went through some photographs of me and my grandpa when I was growing up - it was his funeral last week which was hard but the photos made me smile :)
Other things this week: between the time I go to make my 8pm cup of tea and the time I finish, it gets dark! My hosta is setting out new buds for the second time this year. A very small flower was squeezed out of my sweet pea.
It's been a in-between sort of week, which is just right for this time of year. On Sunday I went for a sea swim followed by enough fish and chips to make me feel a bit sick. The water was incredibly cold, despite my reassurances to my companions that the sea temperature should be at its warmest in September! There were guillemots close in to the shore, diving for fish around us.
But also... the cake shop on my way to work is already fully decorated for Halloween, I've harvested my first mini pumpkin. Yesterday I walked a labyrinth as part of a team building exercise, and the shared quiet of a dozen people contemplating the path was only broken by the first fallen leaves crunching underfoot.