For all the drawing in of the days I love autumn, the way it smells, fruity, damp and smokey, the colours of the leaves drifting down from the trees, lying crisp and crunchy underfoot until it rains again. Autumn fills me with nostalgia for old school days, the start of a new term, clean exercise books and new beginnings even as the year draws to a close. I love the clear bright mornings after a night of rain when the air is crisp and chill and a mist rises over the tree tops by the stream.
In the garden a few last apples lie rotting on the ground, decaying gradually into the soil as the birds have taken all they want. There are chutneys in the larder, dried herbs in jars and blackberries nestling in the freezer ready for autumn feasting. The painting above reflects the final summer harvest and will soon be featuring on some tea towels and canvas totes for Stokeley Farm shop, just a mile or two down the road.
Autumn is also a great time to enjoy indoor pursuits - for me painting is a major pleasure, but I also love sewing and have just taken up knitting again as one of my very best friends is expecting a baby in the spring. I was helping her sort through some very old boxes and we came across some lovely vintage knitting patterns. I particularly liked one for a knitted tea cosy, taken from a 30 year old magazine ......
Back of teacosy.
It was designed by a lady with the wonderful name of Mrs Halcyon Green. The back of the cottage has a single window and three Welsh sheep. I think the front would look even nicer with maybe some embroidered roses around the door. If you'd like the pattern then please click here to download it as a pdf file. I think I'll practice my rather rusty knitting skills for a while before attempting this, but I'd love to know if anyone does try it out, it would make a great Christmas pressie!
And finally ... another couple of exerpts from Vita Sackville-West's epic poem "The Land" (one of my all-time favourites) - from the Autumn verses.....
"If you may snatch before the rain
Crisp days when clods will turn up rough;
Gentleman robin brown as snuff
With spindle legs and bright round eye
Shall be your autumn company....
...Then may you shoulder spade and hoe,
And heavy-booted homeward go,
For no new flowers shall be born
Save hellebore on Christmas morn,
And bare gold jasmine on the wall,
And violets, and soon the small
Blue netted iris, like a cry
Startling the sloth of February."
We don't go too often in the summer as it gets very busy and Mum says me and Amy do not behave very well. But all the families with baby humans have gone now so I can charge around at 100 mph on the sand and go swimming again. All the families with picnics have gone too, so Amy can't plonk herself in the middle of their picnic blankets and refuse to move until they give her food. 
We sat and looked at them to show them how thin we were and to try to make them give us their food but they just laughed! Huh! We will call the Dog Rescue People!
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