Feels like Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun...

John Keats

Autumn is here, it feels like autumn today. Everyday on the way to and from school I pass a tree. It is a very large Horse Chestnut tree. For the past two years I have taken photos of this tree, I call it my tree. I took another photo today. The leaves are just turning to a bright orange and the conkers are popping and falling.

The leaves actually started turning in August (the picture above was taken on 11th September) but they are beginning to fall now. Already there is a carpet of gold against the dry stone wall. They are just waiting for feet to kick them up and swirl them round.

This was the tree today.

The breeze taste

Of apple peel.

The air is full

Of smells to feel-

Ripe fruit, old footballs,

Burning brush,

New books, erasers,

Chalk and such.

The bee, his hive,

Well-honeyed hum,

And mother cuts

Chrysanthemums.

Like plates washed clean

With suds, the days

Are polished with

A morning haze.

John Updike

Funny sort of Sunday

It has been a funny sort of Sunday. Not sure if it is because Hubby has been working all weekend so had I to entertain myself, the pressure at work has got to me, grey sky all day, not had chocolate for three days or I had a bad dream last night?

Anyway, I did tidy the garden a bit, it took 2 hours to sweep the paths! here is a mosaic I made from various garden photos.

I also had a chance to work on my secret project.....want a peek?.........

I am looking forward to the new series starting tomorrow night on Five called Flashforward not least because it has Joseph Fiennes in it! I lost interest in LOST so hope it is better than that and keeps me watching. I went the cinema with some friends on Friday, 500 days of Summer was OK, a nice sort of film with an excellent soundtrack.

Yesterday this picture caught my eye in the Telegraph Travel Pages

Now that's what I call a patchwork! The photograph was taken in Burma by Micheal Kerr.

Now remember..........

It's Saturday!

What a beautiful day it has been here in West Yorkshire!

First thing this morning I had to go to Halifax to pick up a parcel and so I called into a couple of charity shops and picked up a bargain or two while I was there. Two 100% wool scarves in beautiful stripes of colour (which went straight into the washing machine to be felted) and four pretty napkins.

Then it was home and into the greenhouse to pot up Hyacinths and Miniature Iris into containers in the hope of things to come next spring.
I have been on the look out for a large blue and white china serving bowl to plant mini iris in but not found one as yet. Will have to be next year now.

Collete from Poppy cottage asked for the recipe for Green Tomato chutney mentioned in last post (I will be making more tomorrow!) so here it is.


It is from Good Housekeeping 'Preserves' by Joanna Farrow.

450g cooking apples, peeled, cored and minced

225g onions, skinned and minced

1.4 kg green tomatoes thinly sliced

225g sultanas

225g demerara sugar

2 level tsp salt

450ml malt vinegar

4 small pieces of root ginger

1/2 level tsp cayenne pepper

1 level tsp mustard powder

Place all the ingredients into a preserving pan or large, heavy based sauce-pan. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the ingredients are tender and reduced to a thick pulpy consistency. Remove the ginger pieces.

spoon into sterilised jars, cover and seal.

I leave mine for a while before eating so it gets less vinegary.

I sent off for a few bits from Mouse at Mousenotebook they arrived beautifully wrapped. Another bag for my collection. Also three little birds and a Bear-Cat you can see peeping out of the bag she sent. All are made with such care and detail.

Diane over at Heartshaped asked in her latest post if we have had any 'failures' this year? Well I have to say my beans turned out rubbish, my radish went to seed and my kale was ate by slugs!

THANK YOU if you have voted for me at the Dorset cereals little blog awards (link at top of my page-hint, hint!) I now have four votes so thankyou!!!! (I know Tracey , Diane and Michela have!)
Look out for this called 'Talking Threads, coming to SKY in October, might be worth watching.

Pop over to Hook and Scumble there is a brill giveaway if you would like crochet or would like to learn how to crochet

It's Friday!

Morning mist-a view from our window.

It has been a very long week! I am so glad it is Friday I plan to do lots of crafty things this weekend and relax. Last weekend we spent lots of time in the garden so not a lot else was done. I did make some green tomato chutney.

I still have enough to make another three batches of the stuff. We collected the last of the salad leaves and cucumber too.

The garden was looking good with lots of dahlias still blooming, we tried to cut the grass and hedges one last time this year but the mower broke half way through cutting the grass so we have half a lawn uncut.

I got the last of the potatoes up too.

So you see we have been busy. I am in the middle of putting together my Pay it Forward gifts to send to my three lovely ladies. I do know Simone is looking for her last taker. Please pop over, she makes very pretty paper crafts and she may send you some!

I am also working on a little secret project I will reveal soon. I am off to see '500 days of summer' tonight but I hope to pop over during the weekend and have a look at the blogs, so have a good one.

The orchard at the top of the garden.

(sounds very grand but only has three apple trees in it!)

awards, allotments and Autumn

I went over to see my mum at her allotment the other evening and we had a good few hours having a potter around and I came back with lots of free produce. Autumn on the allotment.

I plan to make some green tomato chutney this weekend with the apples and green tomatoes from my own garden.

When I returned home from work this evening I found a parcel waiting for me, all the way from Venice. It was from Michela and it was her Pay It Forward for me.

I could hardly contain myself! I opened each carefully wrapped package and was delighted with the contents...

....four huge prints of Venice, a cross stitch for me to try my hand at, a wooden cat to hold my threads, a bar of yummy Italian chocolate, some very pretty vintage looking buttons and a handmade card and a handmade felt heart, made by Michela.

I still can not believe the generosity of the lovely people I 'meet' in Blogland and hope to pass on my PIF around Christmas time. I am also working on a little secret project I can't reveal at the moment!

Thank you Michela, I love everything.

A while ago Michela also sent me this award.


and I would like to pass it on to some of my most recent followers that I think my not of had this award yet.

Hook and scumble

juanitatortilla

josie-mary

andamento

milkchurn cottage

and Elise
please accept this award for you lovely blogs. And thank you again Michela for the award, I will pop it on my side bar. Also thank you to everyone that leaves comments about my posts. I love reading them and appreciate each and every one.

I do need to show you this little fella...

he was trying to escape from being made into chutney....

I'm afraid he's headed for the pot!

Thank you for all the lovely comments on last nights post. And thank you to Simone, Colette and Diane for joining my Pay it Forward. So if you missed putting your name down for mine, pop over to their blogs and sign up for one of theirs. They will send you some lovely handmade goodies.

I forgot to tell you about a brill concert Hubby took me to last Sunday Evening at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. We'll Meet Again.

It was a concert introduced by June Whitfield with the Manchester Concert Orchestra playing songs and tunes from the war years. There was a male signer and a trio of girls called The Swingcats, a tribute to George Formby, and two dancers doing Lindy-hop and jive. It was excellent, the sing along at the end was good with most people (except Hubby) singing along.

I came home Friday to find Lucy stalking one of my shoes. On closer inspection I could see a shrews bottom and tail and quickly took the shoe outside. I shook the shoe but the shrew hung on, I shook it harder, no the shrew clung to the innersole at the toe and would not budge. Eventually with lots of shaking, out he popped and scurried away squealing and squeaking in disgust. I can't think whats worse, being killed by a toothless but evil clawed Lucy or spending the day in one of my shoes!

It didn't help I later found Shrew Poo in my Shoe!!

Good start to the weekend

Today was the village Michaelmas Show. It is only a small affair, there seemed to be less home grown produce this year, and I didn't enter any either. I did enter the photography section and the Painting or sketch section. Everyone had an eye on a 1st Rosette or even one of these-

I dropped off my entries at 11am went home and pottered around for a few hours. Then went back for the prize giving at 3pm. I found my photographs first.

I had been awarded a third rosette and certificate! They had not got round to placing the certificates and rosettes in the Arts and Crafts section so I wandered around to look at the other exhibits.

When I went back I found...

I had won 1st prize for the painting of Bob and 2nd prize for the painting of Lucy! I also won over all best in Arts and Crafts!!! I am so chuffed! I am quite competitive-Ask Shan, and I came away with a big grin on my face. Only trouble is I will have to do it all again next year-maybe I will enter something in the 'Knitted item' category or a jar of my home made jam or the 'Embroidery' section.....

Now I would like to show you my WIP. The squares are coming along and as I lay them out on the floor to have a look I realise the Autumn colours actually start to look more 'Christmasy' so it may become my snuggle up at Christmas throw.

Also I am going to make another plea for people to join my 'Pay It Forward'. I mentioned it in this post and have had not one single person join. I only need three!

Have a think and let me know if you are interested.

It was such a beautiful day I walked around the village after the show.

This is where the show was held.




and this is St Bartholomews Church.
Wasn't it a lovely day? Hope you all had a good start to the weekend. Now Hubby is away on a 'Lads Weekend' so the chick flick, chocolate and red wine are calling........

mixed bag

This is a mixed bag of a post really. First thank you to all that sent good wishes for my mum. She seems to be on the mend. I must also thank Colette at Poppy Cottage for the lovely bundle of goodies she sent to me, it was much appreciated, thank you. As you can see I got some funky wool and a pattern for a 'quick bag' some lovely gingham ribbon-might have to think 'Christmas' there. Also a fab poppy felt brooch and a little notebook decorated with herb paintings. I do love blogland!!

Another book I rescued from the skip at school is a large A5 book with a tatty ripped cover called News Chronicle Housewife's Handy Book. I have been looking through it and have scanned some pages here for you. There are not many illustrations (and no dates) but I think it must be 1920's or 30's. Some things are so funny.

Chapters include such gems as-

Sweet making at home

Jobs about the house

How to dance

Beauty for the housewife

Stitch craft made easy

Everyday Etiquette

'Have you among your bag of bargains a square piece of cream cashmere? if so, it will prove the handiest possible thing to convert into a bright Italian shawl. Italian shawls are becoming even more popular than Spanish ones.'

The 'Letter Writing section' is hilarious! with examples of letter to servants, neighbours complaining about the noise, the bank manager, the baker and to the father of the girl you want to marry! my favourite one though is this from a girl accepting a proposal of marriage-

My dearest Harry,

I have read your sweet letter over and over again-and kissed it too! Of course I remember our first meeting a year ago to-day-just as though I should forget it! -and our walks, and the dances, and the cinemas, and the motor-bike rides. And I remember,too, the dearest old boy in the world and how day by day and week by week my interest in him grew until love itself was born.....

Those were the days!

A funny old weekend

It's been a funny old weekend. After going to visit my mum, who is not feeling too well I seemed out of sorts all weekend. I did not feel settled and could not concentrate long enough to get anything done. I did stroll around the garden this morning and 'rescued' a few flowers. Some were broken or in danger of snapping and others just needed to be cut. I wanted a nice bright vase of flowers in the lounge. Last year I had lots of dahlias and put them in a lovely vintage jug near the front door.

Hubby is working hard on his APC (to become chartered) any spare time he has, so I have found myself doing planning for the topics coming up at school. I am looking forward to the Class Four Topic, The Second World War. I plan to do 'Make do and Mend' with them and we are making some information posters too.

Did you know the above poster, that can be seen a lot at the moment was a government poster discovered in a dusty box nine years ago. Though it never saw the light of day in 1939 (it was supposed to go up if Britain was invaded) it has suddenly struck a chord with the public.

This weekend was Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing we went last year for the first time but did not make it this year. This ceremony is a tradition where the new rushes were taken to the churches. Click on the link to find out more. These days it stops off at public houses so the men pulling the Rush cart can take a little refreshment. The Mummers plays and Morris dancers entertain. These are some photos from last years event.