This week I’ve seen beautiful mists over fields as I made my way by train to London. The moon coming into fullness and lighting the crisp autumn night. A night that the foxes in the garden were enjoying if their calling is anything to go by.
It was about this time last year we went sloe picking in the Borders and saw a whole field, glittering just as you describe with spider threads! Also impossible to capture in a photo! But then that's a kind of magic in itself.
This week we've been trying to take advantage of waking up at the same time as the sun (until the clocks go back) - out early in the morning, the sky is streaked blue and pink as the day dawns over the duck pond at the park. Our breath streaming ahead of us as we walk out into the frosty morning. Followed by early nights reading a book in bed!
Ah so it really is a seasonal thing! I wasn’t entirely sure because it isn’t our usual walk. Love the sound of your morning walks, I’ve been lazy and doing mine later this week because of half term…
Making spicy pumpkin soup to bring warmth and cheer to a very dreich day; stopping to listen to the robin singing his heart out in the Rowan tree; stamping noisily through a colourful carpet of fallen leaves and breathing in the decaying scent of autumn.
We’ve had some absolutely beautiful autumnal days this week, bright and warm with a hint of crispness in the shade. I’ve made a concerted effort to really try and enjoy the moment, and done lots of lunch break walks along the canal to reset the stresses of the day. It’s been a week of seasonal feasts too - enormous baked mushrooms covered in garlic and cheese and sticky toffee pudding, which I always eat with custard and then get ridiculously full.
I need fingerless gloves as work from home as often my hands are the only cold part - great idea ! Love the ‘fairy’ walk too - short lived magic descending in to naughty dog chaos 😂
This week
Storm Babet raged & we thought the rain would never end, waterlogged garden & rivers running down our road ..
Seasonal sickness in the household meant napping on the sofa, toast, tissues & gentle murder mysteries on the tv
Homemade creamy fish pie with peas - soft, warming & full of goodness to restore us x
Once the storm passed, the weather seemed to bend each day somehow, with the turning trees offering the only brightness on fog filled mornings, but then giving way in the late afternoons to the most comforting yet rather melancholy end of day sunlight. I took these golden hour chances to plant summer sown foxgloves and sweet rocket, along with the album bulbs. We are our first fish pie of the season too - I love this time of year for food that comes bubbling from the oven.
Silvery, fat hyacinth bulbs twinkling at me like Christmas decorations in the market as I pass through. Gotta stop giving in and hoovering up more and more of the little buggers.....
It's been taking a lot of my willpower this week to get out the front door - the grey skies and the rain doesn't look very inviting - but as soon as the door is open and the fresh, unheated air hits me I feel energised! The mist on today's walk drenched my eyelashes and the muddy field meant my trousers went straight to be washed. But such is October!
Still collecting the seeds from trailing nasturtiums climbing into the trees not yet cut down by frost .Potting up bulbs saying goodbye to sweet peas and black eyed susan plants as they too set their papery sleeved seeds .Walking by flowing streams and noticing a shift in the temperature .As the veil thins looking forward to being bathed in moonlight and sensing that the darkness will gradually settle into our days -a time of peace for some but always remembering the darkness that has dropped into our world at this time -shine a light for peace 🙏🙏
October is all about books, after a flurry of last-minute designs for Frankfurt Book Fair, I settled down to read Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘Hamnet’. It is suitably witchy and Autumnal.
I shall be seeing out more Maggie O’Farrell to read. ‘Hamnet’ was so touching and otherworldly. Towards the end Florence Welch singing Sonnet 29 was in my head.
Wish I could have seen those spider webs and also wow the temperature has dropped so much back in the UK. Everyone here complain because we’re having lots of rainy cold days but really isn’t a patch on English winter. My first thing is swimming through my local lake on a grey day, as brown oak leaves fell, which felt like breaking the surface of a silver mirror, the leaves brushing my arms before spinning away from me. Second, listening to the ghostly Welsh podcast from “As The Season Turns” whilst walking the cobbles on an autumny night in Freiburg. Third, roasted Maroni (sweet chestnuts) eaten piping hot straight from a paper bag in the marketplace.
Ah, the spiders shiny strands crossing from one side of the window to the other! Even now at 11am! How strong they are! No wind can move them, magical x
In central NC we are not always guaranteed a very colorful autumn. Sometimes everything just goes kind of brown and drops off. But this year we are blessed with abundant golds and now somehow the reds are shining out everywhere. It is a strange and colorful fall season, full of light.
This week I’ve seen beautiful mists over fields as I made my way by train to London. The moon coming into fullness and lighting the crisp autumn night. A night that the foxes in the garden were enjoying if their calling is anything to go by.
Eating the very last tomatoes from the garden, tasting of sunshine despite the almost incessant rain
The squishy damp mulchy leaves smell of a wet autumn
Autumn leaves going squelch instead of crunch underfoot thanks to the rain (I much prefer crunchy autumns!)
Listening to the rain on my window as I read seasonally fitting books about fungi and spooky underground spaces
And now for a couple that don’t feature rain:
The golden slanting light of an early sunset on that one sunny perfect October day kissing the buildings just right
Gazing at the moon outside with the cat purring on my lap!
It was about this time last year we went sloe picking in the Borders and saw a whole field, glittering just as you describe with spider threads! Also impossible to capture in a photo! But then that's a kind of magic in itself.
This week we've been trying to take advantage of waking up at the same time as the sun (until the clocks go back) - out early in the morning, the sky is streaked blue and pink as the day dawns over the duck pond at the park. Our breath streaming ahead of us as we walk out into the frosty morning. Followed by early nights reading a book in bed!
Ah so it really is a seasonal thing! I wasn’t entirely sure because it isn’t our usual walk. Love the sound of your morning walks, I’ve been lazy and doing mine later this week because of half term…
Making spicy pumpkin soup to bring warmth and cheer to a very dreich day; stopping to listen to the robin singing his heart out in the Rowan tree; stamping noisily through a colourful carpet of fallen leaves and breathing in the decaying scent of autumn.
We’ve had some absolutely beautiful autumnal days this week, bright and warm with a hint of crispness in the shade. I’ve made a concerted effort to really try and enjoy the moment, and done lots of lunch break walks along the canal to reset the stresses of the day. It’s been a week of seasonal feasts too - enormous baked mushrooms covered in garlic and cheese and sticky toffee pudding, which I always eat with custard and then get ridiculously full.
Oh yum. And very well done on the lunchtime walks!
I need some of those garlicky, cheesy mushrooms in my life 👌🏼
Don’t we all!
I need fingerless gloves as work from home as often my hands are the only cold part - great idea ! Love the ‘fairy’ walk too - short lived magic descending in to naughty dog chaos 😂
This week
Storm Babet raged & we thought the rain would never end, waterlogged garden & rivers running down our road ..
Seasonal sickness in the household meant napping on the sofa, toast, tissues & gentle murder mysteries on the tv
Homemade creamy fish pie with peas - soft, warming & full of goodness to restore us x
Chuckling at your differentiating gentle murder mysteries
Ha 😂’Cosy Crime’ would be another way to describe .. Agatha Christie always fits the bill
Hilarious this week Lia! You really got me chuckling. Hope they bring the gloves back SOON.
I've been noticing -
The golden cap topping the hornbeam tree while all its other leaves are green as green;
The willows letting more sky show through - more light just in time for the shorter days.
and listening to my neighbour's children shrieking in the play park over the brook at 5.30 pm, they won't be doing that next week....
Oh I want a fairie walk!
Once the storm passed, the weather seemed to bend each day somehow, with the turning trees offering the only brightness on fog filled mornings, but then giving way in the late afternoons to the most comforting yet rather melancholy end of day sunlight. I took these golden hour chances to plant summer sown foxgloves and sweet rocket, along with the album bulbs. We are our first fish pie of the season too - I love this time of year for food that comes bubbling from the oven.
Ate not are!!! I am not a fish pie!
Silvery, fat hyacinth bulbs twinkling at me like Christmas decorations in the market as I pass through. Gotta stop giving in and hoovering up more and more of the little buggers.....
It's been taking a lot of my willpower this week to get out the front door - the grey skies and the rain doesn't look very inviting - but as soon as the door is open and the fresh, unheated air hits me I feel energised! The mist on today's walk drenched my eyelashes and the muddy field meant my trousers went straight to be washed. But such is October!
Still collecting the seeds from trailing nasturtiums climbing into the trees not yet cut down by frost .Potting up bulbs saying goodbye to sweet peas and black eyed susan plants as they too set their papery sleeved seeds .Walking by flowing streams and noticing a shift in the temperature .As the veil thins looking forward to being bathed in moonlight and sensing that the darkness will gradually settle into our days -a time of peace for some but always remembering the darkness that has dropped into our world at this time -shine a light for peace 🙏🙏
October is all about books, after a flurry of last-minute designs for Frankfurt Book Fair, I settled down to read Maggie O’Farrell’s ‘Hamnet’. It is suitably witchy and Autumnal.
Oh an incredible book. Love to hear what you think.
I shall be seeing out more Maggie O’Farrell to read. ‘Hamnet’ was so touching and otherworldly. Towards the end Florence Welch singing Sonnet 29 was in my head.
I've read several of hers and theyre all great but I loved the two latest ones - Hamnet and the marriage portrait - best
Ah great, I have The Marriage Portrait lined up next - thanks for the recommendation!
oh Hamnet, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Placing a hold for this at my library now!
Wish I could have seen those spider webs and also wow the temperature has dropped so much back in the UK. Everyone here complain because we’re having lots of rainy cold days but really isn’t a patch on English winter. My first thing is swimming through my local lake on a grey day, as brown oak leaves fell, which felt like breaking the surface of a silver mirror, the leaves brushing my arms before spinning away from me. Second, listening to the ghostly Welsh podcast from “As The Season Turns” whilst walking the cobbles on an autumny night in Freiburg. Third, roasted Maroni (sweet chestnuts) eaten piping hot straight from a paper bag in the marketplace.
Ah, the spiders shiny strands crossing from one side of the window to the other! Even now at 11am! How strong they are! No wind can move them, magical x
This week I’ve loved the mist and the fog, especially in the mornings. It seems to set off the colours of the leaves in its own way.
In central NC we are not always guaranteed a very colorful autumn. Sometimes everything just goes kind of brown and drops off. But this year we are blessed with abundant golds and now somehow the reds are shining out everywhere. It is a strange and colorful fall season, full of light.