Trying to be spooky and failing

This is a hopeless day to feel dark and spooky! It is mild and balmy, strawberries have refruited in my raised beds and roses are bursting into flower. Which I suppose is spooky from a climatic perspective. But I'm feeling particularly chipper because I have just had my first haircut since July (I KNOW!), and  call me shallow doesn't a great haircut make your day? And my sanita clogboots have arrived, oh joy (more about my love of clogs another day)! Maybe the clogs could look trollish?? I know I will wear them all winter from henceforth and for ever more amen.

So, trying to summon up some love of spooksville for Jane's Halloween floral party, I grabbed my cast iron  teapot and the darkest foliage and flowers I could find. Except then I saw sprays of my yellow roses and couldn't resist - so failed miserably for the sinister look. 

Anyoldhow, I quite like the autumny look if it isn't very witchy. If you would like to enjoy some more successful attempts, hop on your brooms and fly over to Jane's 'house of horror' flower party. xx

seasons

This last weekend typified the weather of late - cloudless blue, breezy, crunchy leaves underfoot and the smell of bonfires.

This autumn has been perfection in many ways, the gorgeous burnished colours all set off by the soft golden light, blue skies and dramatic sunsets. Although the evenings and early mornings are chillier, the frost has stayed away and I am picking flowers like mad before it arrives. The jugs full of blooms all over the house still have the hint of summer about them, which is getting my seasonal antennae all confused!

Truthfully, this kind of Autumn is so easy to love, and has none of the persistent pinching cold and drab wetness we often get. But, it has also been unbelievably dry, hardly a drop of rain, like the two months of drought we had in the Spring and it is beginning to really take its toll. The lawn is parched brown and patchy despite the heavy dews and our local river is looking shrunken and perilously low. I've all but given up on the pots of flowers in the garden and the berries and leaves on the trees and scarcer and more shrivelled that usual. The overwhelming shade all around is beginning to be brown, but sparkling in this wall-to-wall sunshine, brown has never looked prettier! I took a few shots with my phone while walking the dog down by the river, the seedheads were so noble somehow! I love seedheads, beautiful and architectural and resilient  - that  is why I chose one for my Wild Acre logo I suppose (that last pic is the logo in nature!).

But since the evenings are colder and darker, we have started lighting fires in our woodburner and the whole barn takes on this woodsmokey, toasty feel that I love. Throws are back on the sofas and candles are being lit. Crumbles have been made from fruits found in the hedgerows and trees, hearty soups, roasts and pies and warm salads with roasted sweet potatoes and peppers and chili, coriander and feta - all good for the soul if not the waistline.

Puff pastry sheet scored around the edges, filled with sauted onions, garlic and mushrooms, topped with tallegio cheese - cooked for 25 mins or so, yummmm - thanks Nigel Slater!

And lastly, I'm ready to put the garden to bed and free that space in my brain that is garden-filled for most of the year! I think living in a country with defined seasons, even if they are a little wonky now and again,  really suits my need for change and rhythm and ritual, England I love you!

for more 'goodlife' posts pop over to the gorgeous abeachhouse blog

October Frost and Sun: part 1

We are getting some amazing cold, clear days at the moment which means night frosts which, in turn, usually heralds instant collapse of my dahlias, zinnias, cosmos and other tender beauties. The zinnias are looking fairly terminal but to my surprise the cosmos and some of the dahlias are putting up a brave fight. See here,

and here,

and it appears that the flowers still at semi-bud stage, with no old outside petals  - like these,

are slightly less vulnerable than those older ladies, who crinkle at the edges in the freezing temperatures (just visible at the top edges).

Luckily for me, the half-open stage flowers have a tight, fresh beauty of their own in bouquets and last  longer in the vase than fully open ones. Finding enough undamaged flowers is more challenging now and arrangements are beginning to involve lots of evergreen foliage and hardy grasses and shrub fruits and hips. I do love a bit of foraging though, and am more than happy to tap into my easily-found inner Saxon peasant. Scratched fingers, cold nose and pink cheeks all add to the feeling! The resulting arrangements look natural and rather lovely but I don't yet have the confidence to offer them for sale. Below, are two bouquets I scraped together from some of the last of the garden flowers, more from the hedgerows in a later post.

Bouquets for sale!

Here are some of the bouquets I made from those flowers I picked yesterday.

These September colours, in the immortal words of one very kind American reader of my blog, "rock my socks off". 

In English-English, they really are rather lovely.

For a friend's birthday

Happy Birthday, Wild Acre style.