Back in the fold...

Just in time for winter.

Hello, and a big Welcome Back! Yes, at long last I am reinstated with a laptop, fingers poised over the keyboard…. and where do I start? When I last wrote, we are teetering on the precipice of autumn; the harvest rolling in from the fields all around and the hedgerows beginning to groan under a bumper crop of fruits and just starting to snag some morning mists. Now, we are well into November, autumn has deepened and darkened, and many of the fallen leaves have collapsed into drifts of mud in lane-side ditches and slippery film on brick paths. Things have changed inside our home too. Dinners are heartier, filled with root veg or iron-rich brassicas. The log burner has been in action, toasting toes. The chickens have been moulting heavily, growing a new set of fine fluffy feathers, ready for the colder months. And our little family has grown by one! A Saturday afternoon in early October, as golden leaves swirled past the kitchen window, we opened the door of a pet carrier, and introduced our newly adopted rescue cat to his forever home. Evenings are now made for three; husband, cat, and I, on the sofa in front of the fire.

Of course, I have also started a little festive excitement, and indulged in a little shopping… not all of it for me! I am looking forward to a special Christmas Market outing next weekend, and I might get to the local lights switch-on too.

With all these goings on, the garden has been a bit neglected. I have at least moved the tender plants into my sunny shed – the standard Fuchsia, the Lemon Verbena, and the Auriculas – but the weather has been incredibly mild for the time of year. Looking at the forecast however, all that is set to change, with temperatures predicted to fall into low single figures at the start of the new working week, with clear bright skies. Oh… I’m talking about the weather; well, some things never change!

The window is open, and I can hear the high notes of a Robin singing from the hedge, answered by another from the brambly apple beyond the side gate. The scents to wet leaves, and woodsmoke from chimneys is worth cold toes and fingers as I sit and type. I can just see a branch of the old top-heavy pear tree beyond the window, bereft of any leaves and long stripped of its fruits. Maybe I’ll ask for a squirrel-proof bird feeder for Christmas, to hang just there. The make up of the congregation of birds I see in the garden, and my walks to and from work each day, has completed a total shift in characters from the summer months. Long gone now are the softly swooping Swallows, and the lightly flitting Warblers. Here instead are sharply pointed Firecrests in the evergreens, the staccato alarm calls of Blackbirds, the Mistle Thrushes hard rattle, skulking brown Wrens, and a black watchfulness of Crows. Occasional small parties of thrushes interrupt the grey sky, a thin cold ‘seep-seep’ call identifying them as migrating Redwing.

I am still drinking tea from a pumpkin-shaped mug, and craving sticky ginger cake, and iced cinnamon buns, but I am thinking about pigs-in-blankets, gravy, and fairy-lights. I think I’m ready for the rest and reset that winter is bringing.

Thank you for bearing with me over the past couple of months, and especially welcome to new subscribers who have joined in recent weeks. I really do appreciate your support.