Sliding into autumn

The signs have been coming, haven’t they?

It’s been clear that a change of seasons has been about to take place, not least because of the autumn equinox on 23 September. There’s been subtler ways that our days have changed though over the past few weeks, and I’m sure yours have too.

We’re no longer wearing shorts and we’re sad about that! Now we’re most likely to reach for our jeans and long sleeved tops. My sandals are still there tempting me to put them on - and occasionally I do - but mostly now I’m choosing proper shoes or trainers. I’ve not yet broken into a coat yet - there’s a few months before that’s likely to happen, but a fleece and/or a waterproof is now a consideration when leaving home, though thankfully not always required.

There’s still some sun at times during the day and it’s been great to make the most of that, I’ve been able to time when I leave the house to coincide with the best of the weather, and I’m grateful for that. Just yesterday I spent an hour or so with my head in a podcast walking around a new-to-me local garden, taking pictures as I went.

burnished orange coneflowers spilling over the border's edge

CONEFLOWERS TUMBLING OVER THE BORDER AT HALL PLACE BEXLEY THIS WEEK

The food we’re eating has changed too - less salads and more heartier food, which is great - even lunches now have something hot, and I know that soup will once become a regular on our table. For me, autumn food is always welcome I think it’s of the best seasons food-wise! The slow cooker is making more of an appearance on my kitchen worktop and I’m regularly cooking recipes from Sarah’s Slow Cooker Series - they’re seriously tasty, and definitely worth a look if you need some inspiration.

The temperature is lower as you’d expect, and we’ve had one much chillier day this week. That’s meant we’re finally using more than a sheet and a patchwork quilt on our bed. The heating isn’t on yet, but we have progressed to the summer weight duvet - we have the duvets that click together, so there’s a few layers to go before we’ve reached maximum levels yet. Even so, the past few winters we haven’t even made it to the winter duvet stage, let alone both clicked together - but we know it’s an option if we need it.

An outdoor display of almost every kind of pumpkin, squash and gourd you can imagine at Stourhead NT in October 2021

A MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY OF PUMPKINS, SQUASH AND GOURDS AT NT STOURHEAD IN OCTOBER 2021

In the garden the leaves on the sycamores are still green and don’t look as if they’ll be coming down just yet, but there are other changes; the plants that suffered most in the summer drought are recovering, and our grass is finally green again. It’s patchy, but it’s green and patchy - which is good news. The squirrels are collecting food for their winter stores, and annoying MOH by digging holes around the garden - though I’m pretty sure they never come back for whatever they’re digging!

This weekend we need to move some pots and put away the sun loungers for the winter. I’m debating (with myself) whether it’s time to cover up the garden table and chairs just yet, or if we’ll be lucky to get a little bit more use out of them, even if it’s a snatched hour or two here and there.

I don’t know about you, but I’m here for it - autumn is probably my most favourite season, what about you?

I was featured on Blogger Showcase

Nine

Each year around the time of my blog birthday I share a post to celebrate my space on the internet, and this year’s no different. The posts often feature a list, but this year I was struggling to think of a theme. Nine years is a long time blogging, and a long commitment - but nine what?

Last year my list was on how life had changed during Covid, before that seven gardens to visit - and yes, that didn’t go quite to plan, though I did revisit my progress back in January.

I was stumped.

Where did we holiday nine years ago, I’m not quite sure I know that easily, or can lay my hands on photos - though I do know we went to Guernsey for our wedding anniversary in June and had a great time. Then inspiration struck when I realised that the traditional 9 year anniversary gift theme was pottery.

That was something I could work with - and while the link may be tenuous in some cases, here’s nine posts from over the years to celebrate.

And here’s to more years blogging too - thank you for continuing to support my blog, it’s great to see you here.

I was featured on Blogger Showcase

My top 10 posts of 2021

One of my start of year traditions is to look at the most viewed posts here last year, and this year is no different. Once again I’m sharing two lists again, the first of which shows the top ten posts created in 2021, the second list is the top ten posts created at any time.

So onto the top 10 posts created in 2021.

1 Eight years (and 1 month) blogging

Last year I was running behind time on marking my blog anniversary, and took the opportunity to reflect on eight things that had changed since the previous year, and how my life had altered during that part of the pandemic. If I’m honest, I’m not sure I thought we’d still be quite so in the thick of it, but we are. Hopefully we are at least on the start of the end.

2 A tale of two desks

After about a year of working from home, we decided to get ourselves a desk each - and here I look at how our desks show our different personalities. I don’t think anyone was really that surprised.

3 A new crochet project

A post sharing my enjoyment of my yarn advent calendar, and the plans for my project. That’s finished, and I enjoyed the box so much I got another one for the advent just gone - more to follow on that one soon.

4 Two footstools and a tassel

This post was based on a visit to the Long Gallery at Blickling in Norfolk, which is as its name suggests long, and full of some wonderful tapestry, which while clearly traditional has modern touches too.

5 Calm and swirls in the Mediterranean garden at Houghton Hall

Another Norfolk post has made it into this top 10, and a visit to a place I think we should go to more often - maybe this year we will.

6 A bathroom refresh

Back at the start of last year we finally acted on plans to update our bathroom and while when I wrote this post there was still a little time to wait, and of course a few twists and turns along the way, we did get our new vanity unit into use.

AREZZO WALL HUNG VANITY UNIT, VICTORIAN PLUMBING

7 City green spaces

By the time Easter came around last year, like many people, we were itching to get out and about. But unlike most people we decided to head into the City of London and walk around and around visiting many places that were common to us when we worked in town.

8 Irony and priorities

Finally in April and not without irony I shared my word of the year - which was in fact priorities - and looking back now had its moments, and was overall helpful, but see what I thought at the time.

9 A fascination with boxes

It’s not a bad fascination to have, well as long as the boxes are pretty! These past few months we’ve been collecting the more mundane cardboard sort for MOH’s mum and her house move. The ones in this post though are much prettier.

10 The Chinese Streamside Garden at RHS Bridgewater

I’m pleased to see a post from the new RHS garden make it into the top 10 - I’m sure I have plenty more to share from there. I’ve realised that photo editing is something I’ve been particularly bad at, which isn’t much use for when it comes to blogging about our visits.

I always find it interest to see which posts make it into the lists, and as I’ve said before as long as my blog reflects my life then I’m happy.

Now onto that second list

This list is posts created at any time but viewed in 2021, the year in brackets is the year it was originally posted - and it’s very similar to this list last year. For whatever reason these posts continue to attract views, I’m glad that some of our garden and our gabion baskets are in there.

  1. Filling our gabion baskets (2017)

  2. My IKEA hack: HOL storage table to laundry basket (2015)

  3. Let's talk Edwardian house decoration (2017)

  4. Softening our gabion seating area with plants (2017)

  5. Sean Murray's Great Chelsea Garden Challenge (2017)

  6. 52 Cookbooks #36: Beef in easy tomato sauce (2014)

  7. Three of the six show gardens at the Ideal Home Show (2016)

  8. Fabulous outdoor planters (and more) from Cox & Cox (2016)

  9. Blinds and shutters with Thomas Sanderson (2018)

  10. Circles, spray paint and another plan for my garden (2016)

So there you go, that’s these lists completed for another year. Tradition completed!

I was featured on Blogger Showcase