Autumn love

 

                                      💚A beautiful Acer leaf just for you 💚

Lovely Surprise ! 💚

 

My friend had left a pair of wellies for me by the back door !

Thankyou ever so much Jessica 💚

I think I had mentioned in a previous post about my leaking wellington boots and while clearing out her shed had found these which she thought might be my size and would I like them ?

Well , they are perfect ! And just as the wild Autumn weather is a coming in and I can put away my sandals .

                                            What is that ?

I can go explore the hedgerows and walk across the meadow without getting my feet wet . 

Oh ! No ! 

     "It's the Moon !" cried Chicken Licken . "The Moon has fallen down !" 🐔

 What an extraordinary monster size mushroom/toadstool . Almost the size of a football ! 

I love this time of the year so much . Toadstools will be popping up everywhere , blackberries and apples , the fragrance of falling leaves .

We have had some  quite violent lightening storms here , which I'm not keen on but they didn't come with destructive winds this time .Heavy rain showers and more forecast  for this afternoon .

  Feeling sorry for those who are having to deal with flooding .

Also not keen on the spiders coming in . 

In the shed , my Winter Density Lettuces are doing amazingly well !

Very happy indeedy and will be picking a few leaves from each . Enough for the two of us !

I have sown some more , to keep them coming . Parris Island and er..what ever it says on the Franchi seed packet here .

They are germinating quickly now that it is cooler . I'll put some out side into the veg trug . The ones outside are coming along slowly .  🐌🐌🐌

I jumped to it and dug out the Musa ensete maurelli  - red banana plants . They are now in their polystryene lined corner of the woodshed . There is time for them to get their roots down into the nice fresh compost before going almost dormant for the winter months .

Musa basjoo is the more hardy one , but mine are just babies and so I've brought them in too . I am surprised at the big powerful roots that are coming through the bottom of the pot .....I may re-pot them , depends if I can find some cheapo compost .

Leaking greenhouse update - the Greenhouse builder big boss came round to look at it .

Can see the sky where the top window isn't fitted properly and where the rain is coming in the whole length of the window .

I can't move my cactus collection back in until it is fixed as they really need the greenhouse to be dry .

I will also have to move out all the plants that are in there presently ....all my Epiphyllums and oh my goodness the big dangerous Opuntias ...I'll have to move them out again . Sigh and we are going into the more serious Autumnal weather period now . 🌵🌵🌵

He said he'd give me plenty of warning.  "You give me time , I'll give you time " he said .

 He says that they are going to replace to whole of one side of the greenhouse roof together with the window . We just have to wait for one of his men to return from his holiday .

So I am really relieved about that . At least I know it's going to be sorted .

                        ...and ....I am in love with Autumn 🍁🍃🍂🧡

Blustery Autumn walking in Cornwall

                                  It's been a day of sunshine and showers .

We drove over to Falmouth and were delighted to see a couple of Choughs at Pendennis Point .

I managed to sneak up on them and take lots of pictures , I got quite close up to them , they were too busy plucking grubs out of the grassy bank to notice me .

I followed them about for about fifteen minutes before they took off . 

We haven't seen Choughs in this location before . I wonder where they have come from ? They are not ringed , so maybe young ones from the Lizard Point or Mullion . We have had some very wild weather this week . Maybe they have been driven in here by the gales  .

                                Lovely rock pools at Pendennis Point .

Enjoyed watching the waves and looking in the rock pools .

Then back to beautiful Mullion , where we had a lovely walk across the cliffs .

We watched the squalls coming in .

The ground squelching beneath our feet .

Did a bit of toadstool hunting (not to eat !). I had seen a beautiful "shaggy ink cap " Toadstool a couple of days ago but didn't have my camera with me . I was hoping to find it again today and take some pics of it , but no luck ...sigh  .

Not sure what these are  ? Beautiful and they fascinate me .

I'm no expert and would not risk eating any of them, even these that look very similar to the ones I buy from the supermarket .

Saw the Kestrel hovering up high . Too high to get a good pic of him .

                                          So here's one I took on another day .

I had wanted to get down onto the beach but then we saw the sky turn very dark .

So we ran back to the car and got home just in time !

The garden is looking lovely and lush again .

 Hope you enjoyed a few pics from our Sunday walk . 

   Hugs Debbie x

Hop picking fun !

 A couple of years ago I had a bumper harvest of Hops from the several vines that I have about my garden . I use them to make Hop sleep sachets and pillows .
 The ones I am holding in this top picture ,  may be just a bit under ripe and still look a bit green to me , they need to be just turning brown around the edges .

My Hops are left to scrabble about on a couple of  trees and they are easy  for me to reach and one called "Fuggles " an old English variety which I have in a large tub ( but it really needs to be in the ground )
The ones on the trees are the lovely golden yellow leaved  Humulus lupulus " Aureus" . 

 This year despite the lovely summer , not such a large harvest , as  you can see here on my little kitchen table .

             Enough to twist into a pretty wreath and to stuff one small Hop Pillow  .

 Stormy weather coming tomorrow and over the next few days , glad I came across my hop vines today or they might have been blown away  !
 Our storms are not so bad , but we hope there's not too much damage .
  We are watching on the news the progress of Hurricane Michael in Florida ,over the other side of the world .
 Please get yourselves to a safe place and take care of yourselves , your children and pets ,while there's still time . Our thoughts and prayers are with you .
      Speak again soon ! Daisy x

Autumn Love !

                              I love Autumn ! It is my favourite month !

                                         It makes me want to dance !

                            We are reaping the fruits of our hard labour ....

                                     Lots of Hazelnuts this year .

I made a basket from some of our willow...o.k ...so please don't laugh ...it is my first attempt ! .......and I,m very proud of it ! lol !

Our young Oak tree has produced Acorns for the first time ...I gathered some to plant .

You have to plant Acorns while they are fresh , so I planted them up and have put them into a crate to be left outside through Winter .
 I will plant these out into our hedgerow , when they are big enough , in a couple of years time hopefully.
 We must plant more trees !

                       Gathering colourful Autumn leaves is irresistible  !

We brought a favourite potted Dahlia into the porch to enjoy for a little bit longer .....it had blown over in the gales...the weather has been beautiful again the last two days...but with that comes the chilly nights .....no frost though .
 We have decided to leave the other Dahlias that were planted out into the garden  ....we will cover them with a thick mulch to keep them protected from the cold weather . This one, in the picture above , I will eventually dry out , cut off the top growth and put it into our woodshed to over-Winter and start it off again next Spring .

 I am always delighted to see the Hummingbird  Hawk Moths at this time of the year ! They seem to love Verbena bonariensis and also the Valerian(Centranthus rubra )
and I plan to plant more of these into and around my garden .

 I have taken the window boxes down and potted up the Pelargoniums to over-winter in the greenhouse . I always do this with my favourite ones . I,m just making a note to remember to fix up the insulation stuff in the greenhouse and also get ready the bubblewrap to go around the outside water tap .

 Apples ! Did I tell you about the Apples ? A bumper harvest ! Very happy !

 Lots of Appley - cinnamony cooking smells coming from my kitchen .

        Peeling and freezing and bubbling and baking ...mmmmmm..... !

                                    A little bit of Autumn joy stitching .
This afternoon I harvested my Squashes too  ..... I haven't uploaded the pics yet !
                                                 Speak again soon !