The year has turned ...

... and autumn has definitely arrived. Each day is a little shorter, the lights go on a little earlier and the back door is closed before the evening chill enters the house. The atmosphere in the village has changed too with the departure of the summer visitors. Everywhere is less crowded and people have more time to stop and chat again. The schools have gone back and other autumn activities have commenced - lunch club has started and I've joined a choir based in Kingsbridge.

The newfies love the cooler weather and the freedom to return to their favourite haunts without worrying about the reactions of those who are unfamiliar with my two furry friends ... no more squeals of fright or anxious crossings of the road ... it's such a shame that people often react like that even when the newfs are on their leads. Amy in particular is such a sociable old lady and loves nothing more than to collapse at someone's feet in the hope of having her tummy tickled. Luckily most local people know her well and are more than happy to oblige!

No more buttercups ....

Today we went on one of our usual walks taking in the woods above the village. We were joined for part of the way by Belinda and her terrier doing the school run(!) but they soon outpaced us as Amy does not walk very fast and I was stopping to take photos....

Autumn berries

Apples for scrumping!

An autumn view ...

and a happy Amy (loves having her photo taken)


Still some blackberries to be had (yum!)

Then we turned at the top of the woods and headed down the path towards home.


Ben is worn out - and Amy wants her tea!!

Of pots, pans and preserving ....

I love this passage from Susan Hill in "The Magic Apple Tree" ...

"Down Fen lane, the moonlight shows up the bramble berries, pale green, but fully formed, and the elderberries too, and there are nuts on the chestnut trees and bunches of keys on the sycamore and the ash, and acorns on the oak....... We are approaching the year's turning. I can see autumn just ahead and yet, in the middle of the day, when the early mist has cleared, it is still high, high summer."

She describes this time of year so well and, although it IS still summer I have brought down my heavy cauldron-shaped preserving pan ready for the autumn crop of blackberries, elderberries, apples, plums and sloes.

And, as a "thank you" to everyone who reads my blog, I'd like to share my preserve labels with you (image above). They're based on vintage American fruit crate labels, and have been altered to give you room to write your own description and date. I adore their lovely colours and great artwork and I hope you like them too.

Simply click here to download the free A4 size pdf. Then just cut around them and affix to your jars with some PVA glue. A pretty fabric cover for the lid would look great too if you're planning to give your preserves as gifts at Christmas - now there's a thought!! How many shopping days? OK I'm going now!!

At last the sun shone!

This weekend was very busy for us sleepy South Hams people (and newfies). We had guests!! Not one set, but three sets of people came to visit us in the course of only a week. Ben and Amy were overcome with hospitality, with so many people to snuffle, kiss and generally keep an eye on!!

Visitors are soooooo exhausting - Ben didn't even manage to finish his treat. Amy finished it for him later!!

Friday was Sasha's Christening. Sasha is my Russian friend Elona's young son - and I am his VERY proud godmother. The service was lovely and we were sooo lucky with the weather - at last the sun came out! After the service we all went back to Rory and Elona's for refreshments and were able to enjoy the novel (for this summer anyway) experience of sitting outside on the patio. Rory (who is very competitive) challenged Kyran (who is 5) to a game of Jenga.

Sadly for Rory on this occasion experience did not triumph over youth!!

Kyran was jubilant and Rory gracious in defeat. So everyone was happy!!

The following day we decided to take the number 93 to Dartmouth and indulge in a little liquid refreshment in the Cherub Inn. The Cherub dates back to around 1380 and features many low beams and wobbly floors - just right to trap the unwary drinker or unobservant tourist. We love it for its great atmosphere and extreme dog-friendliness. I am pleased to report that a tin of dog biscuits is kept behind the bar for distribution to all canine visitors. Sadly only one newf at a time can visit as the floor space simply isn't large enough for my two furry friends to lounge around.

I think that the bus route from Torcross to Dartmouth must be one of the most beautiful in the country. My camera was still in my bag from yesterday's christening so I was able to take quite a few photos from the top deck as we rattled along the narrow roads, pausing only to terrorise caravan and camper van drivers into submission. I love to sit at the front and watch the look of pure terror on some drivers' faces when they're faced with a series of narrow bends and an immovable double decker bus! (Yes I know I am a very bad person!!)

Anyway, back to the photos ..... please ignore the strange reflections and wobbles as they were taken through the window.

Slapton Ley from the bus stop at Torcross.

Sweeping view across Start Bay

On the beach at Blackpool Sands - could almost be the south of France - but there's nobody in the extremely chilly water!!

Looking down into Dartmouth

View across to Kingswear

Dartmouth was surprisingly quiet for a sunny Saturday in August - perhaps everyone was making the most of the unusually sunny weather by heading off to the beaches or onto the water. The pirates were in town ..

So we headed inland ...

One of my favourite shops

View across the Boat Float

Then the number 93 took us home again. On the way home the farmers were busy taking advantage of the sunny spell and I was struck by the golden corn and the feeling that soon the year will turn again and autumn is only just around the corner.

But there's still some more summer to come (I hope!) - the Dartmouth Regatta at the end of the month, then I'm exhibiting at Kingsbridge Show. I've also signed up for the Christmas Candlelit Shopping in Dartmouth, so keeping very very busy!

Sunday afternoon ...

Oh, what a wild, blustery, sodden afternoon we had yesterday. Outside the skies were an unremitting leaden grey as the rain hurled itself against the windowpanes and rushed down through the drainpipes to the well below the cellar. It was dark by four o'clock and I was glad to pull the shutters closed against the stormy weather. It was an afternoon to forget all outdoor pursuits - I had planned to get out into the garden ... being a subscriber to Vita Sackville-West's philosophy that:

"If it is true that one of the greatest pleasures of gardening lies in looking forward, then the planning of next year's beds and borders must be one of the most agreeable occupations in the gardener's calendar. This should make October and November particularly pleasant months, for then we may begin to clear our borders, to cut down those sodden and untidy stalks, to dig up and increase our plants, and to move them to other positions where they will show up to greater effect. People who are not gardeners always say that the bare beds of winter are uninteresting; gardeners know better, and take even a certain pleasure in the neatness of the newly dug, bare, brown earth."

But it was not to be. So I closed the shutters and we all settled into a long, peaceful Sunday evening in front of the fire....

Amy chose to stay with us in the living room, but Ben became far too warm and retired to snooze on the chilly flagstones in the hallway. Husband was busy with the papers, so I picked up my latest project...

The knitting!

I have been inspired by a great blog I found called "Little Cotton Rabbits". I purchased one of Julie's patterns for her knitted cupcakes

and am knitting my own to sell at the Yuletide Fair at Saltram House in aid of our local animal rescue centre, Gables Farm, which helps unwanted and abandoned animals find new homes. Up until Ben arrived I'd always had rescue dogs - you can read Susie's story here from my blog entry of March this year. Her tale was so sad, and now I have a house full of newfies I can't possibly adopt any more - but maybe this way I can help give other animals a second chance.

Susie

The cupcakes are turning out rather well, and if you'd like to purchase one, then you can do so on the DevonBear website. Profits are going to the Gables Farm Animal Rescue Centre - I'm not making them on a commercial basis. To make the little cakes extra special I've put a sachet of organic lavender into each one, so they smell as good as they look, and will keep those pesky moths away!

And finally, from my trusty Book of Days ... on 10 November 1960 D H Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was first published in its entirety, and the first run of 200,000 copies had sold out by the end of the day. So there!

Autumn pleasures

Over the last week or so I've noticed the days are growing shorter and every day I seem to draw the curtains earlier. Ben misses his evening walks - over the summer months we developed a habit of taking a second or even third walk up through the woods behind the village while Amy remained at home snoozing happily on her bed.

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."

Time for Tea

Of course the poem I had in mind when setting the hands on this clock was not Hickory Dickory Dock at all, but Rupert Brooke's Grantchester with its final evocative line ...

"Stands the church clock at ten to three?

And is there honey still for tea?"

Thinking of honey, there has been a lot of publicity lately about the mystery honey bee illness that has been decimating hives across America and now there are fears that it might have reached Britain. I was talking to a local bee keeper last week and thankfully there are no signs of problems in our locality as yet, and hopefully never.

Certainly the bees have been busy these last few weeks in the gaps between rainfall. First the lavender which thrives in the hot and (normally) sunny garden at the front of the house, and lately they have been drawn to the ice-plants which are just coming into flower. They are so funny to watch on these, they seem to adore the nectar, becoming drowsy and heavy, hardly able to summon the strength to lift themselves in flight!

Of course the ice-plants flowering is the signal that summer, such as it has been this year, will soon be over and autumn will be upon us. I love autumn, the whiff of woodsmoke on the wind as everyone begins to tidy their gardens, the first chill in the air and the woods just edged in gold. But I do hope we see something of summer first! I was asked to paint some beach huts for a local shop to feature on some bags ....

And then I considered all our usual summer treats that have sadly been few and far between this year ... eating in the gazebo, with the starlight and the moon and our delicate Japanese lanterns strung from the trees in festive fashion .... hot summer afternoons swinging gently in the stripey hammock .... sand between my toes and in the sandwiches at the beach ... but maybe September will be fine - there's still time...

Rosie returns from her gap year in three weeks time, it's hard to believe she's been away since January, the time has passed so quickly. She's spent the last few weeks in Thailand, and has ridden elephants, stroked tigers and enjoyed beach parties under a full moon. Returning to England may well be a shock to the system, but it will be wonderful to see her again. She's requested large quantities of Galaxy chocolate, and Mum's roast dinner to celebrate her return!

In the summer I often roast new potatoes with rosemary from the garden and will leave you with this easy recipe ...

You need a nice hot oven. Put your new potatoes (cut them in half if they're large) into a plastic bag with a tablespoon of olive oil, chopped rosemary (garlic too if you like), some sea salt and cracked black pepper, then squidge around in the bag until they're nicely coated. Tip onto a heavy baking tray and roast for 30 mins. Turn over and leave a bit longer if needed - and that's it. Lovely cold too - good to take on picnics (but watch out for marauding newfies - they adore them!). Happy days indeed!