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."

Demented

I'm a great fan of the Demented cartoon strip by Jacky Fleming which comes out in the Mail on Sunday magazine. I particularly enjoyed this week's offering which I think just about sums up the last few months .....

.. and not just the weather!! Enjoy.

News from Ben

Hi everyone!

It's me, Ben Dickson, reporting in. Shockingly Mum hasn't posted in our blog for a whole month ... that's one whole month without Amy and me getting mentioned on the internet. UN-BE-LIEVE-ABLE!!

So .... what's been happening here in deepest darkest Devon? Apart from rain that is! Well, we've been to the beach a lot ....

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 had our own picnic on the beach, Mum and one of her friends and our most favourite people, Elona, took lots of nice food - good - but sat up on the rocks where we couldn't reach the sandwiches - BAD BAD BAD!!

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!

Mum has bought us new collars. She said it's no good buying us leather ones because they just go mouldy and funny with all the swimming so she would get webbing ones. There was a problem though. It was easy to get a collar for tiny little Amy who only needs a size 24". But big strong me needed a 27" and Mum couldn't find one anywhere in webbing, just leather.

Then she found this wonderful American site called Big Dog Boutique. She chose a very pretty girlish one for Amy called "Pink Lemonade" and "Seaside Stripe" for me - very masculine. Here we are modelling them. It was very hard to sit with our backs to the camera but we managed it for oh about 0.1 of a second. Mum said she was very impressed with the site, the collars arrived in less than a week and not too expensive either.

Mum has been busy upstairs in her workroom for EVER. She says it is something to do with Christmas. But I don't understand. That's not for ages yet. I remember last year that I was responsible for pruning the Christmas tree while Amy helped with the cooking. Now I'm older and wiser I'm going to cook as well! Mum is sure to need my help too. Mum's been busy with some downloadable stuff for Halloween - this bunting thing again. Here's the Halloween bunting ... lots of it is black - just like me, so I know it's very attractive!

And finally ... for other Devon dwellers - you MUST get Devon Today October issue. An article about our Mum is in there!! A picture! And our names are there too - a whole page just about DevonBears. So we is famous after all.

Goodbye from your favourite newfie
Ben Dickson.

Of bunting, beer and TWO competition winners!

What a busy weekend! But here's the names of my competition winners. There are going to be two prizes - first for Cait O'Connor as I just loved her suggestion of the Huggy Bag - irresistible! And secondly for Faith for the sheer quantity of wonderful names - some of which will definitely be used for future products. Meanwhile a big fat

THANK YOU

to everyone who took the time and trouble to leave suggestions. I'm just sorry I can't give everyone a prize!

Last week was the Dartmouth Regatta and our friends Rory and Elona took the bus with us to Dartmouth to spend Saturday afternoon/evening there. The Red Arrows were scheduled for 5.30 pm and Elona was particularly looking forward to this as she only moved here from Russia last year, so has never seen one of their spectacular shows. The crowd was full of anticipation ...

Pavements and balconies were crowded ..... the men had appropriate nourishment in their paws!


And then ..... the cloud came down.

Sadly no Red Arrows after all. This summer has been dreadful - I've spent more time knocking water off the canvas roof of the gazebo than I have sitting in it. Last night the rain was lashing against the windows - in a way it's almost a relief that it's September now as at least we can stop hoping for good weather. Although the economic doom and gloom news is so awful it feels as though it's going to be a long winter. So I thought we needed cheering up, and have spent the last few days developing DevonBears' answer to the credit crunch. Yes, it's PAPER bunting!!

OK stop laughing and get back on your chairs. It's cheerful, colourful, fun and cheap! What could be better? It will encourage people to have parties and make them smile. Well, I like it anyway.

... and at only £5.50 per pack for 18 flags, I'm sure it will add some cheer to the autum and winter months. I'm going to put it all around the office and workroom to give me a summer feeling inside even when it's cold in the garden.

Competition Time!

Hi everyone - I need help! I have a new product for DevonBear Designs which I'm anxious to put on the website, but I have a problem - I can't think of a name for it. It came about originally because of the Babychange Bag .....

The Babychange Bag

Which, as you can see, has a very long handle - to go on shoulder or over buggy handles. Now this is fine, but it left me with a long rounded piece of fabric that was too small for most projects, but too big to waste. Then I realised that the shape was very like that of the bottom of the Amie bag - but probably just a bit narrower....

Here's the Amie Bag so you can see the bottom ..

The Amie Bag

And I had an idea ... initially just for the nursery. What about making some sort of container to keep things tidy. So, basing the shape on the Amie Bag pattern, but making the interior from 12oz canvas to give strength and some rigidity, I made a pouch shape - then put a large brass eyelet in the back for hanging. (Love all that banging with the hammer - great for working off stress!) And this is what it came out like .....

The new product

And then I thought - but it will stand up too, and why keep it just for the nursery (although it will be good to hang over the end of a cot - maybe with a velcro loop?)

So I made more .....

And then I made one in vintage linen. It looks great hanging next to the Aga piled high with my vintage moulds.

I'm sure other people would find them useful too. And I want to put them on my website, but can't think of a name (got hung up on tidy pocket, which does what it says, but isn't very exciting).

So, as I said at the beginning of this post, I need help. Suggestions for a name for this product would be much appreciated.

And the best one will win a "tidy pocket" by any other name!! Please leave your entry as a comment - the competition will close on 31 August when I'll contact the winner and let everyone else know the name.

Thanks for your help.

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!

Homegrown is best!

As an amateur vegetable grower I must admit to some doubts regarding the productivity of my patch. Flowers - yes, I've grown flowers all my adult life, but vegetables - no - not until now that is. My kind next door neighbours started me off with some tomato and courgette plants, to which I added runner beans (almost foolproof), aubergines and peppers. We may well have had one of the wettest Julys ever down here in Devon but, fuelled by the warm sunshine we have enjoyed between the rain, my plants have grown and grown and grown.

And tonight I was proud to present my adaptation of Gordon Ramsay's Fish and Tomato Chowder. It was DELICIOUS!! Here's how it goes....

First put on your very beautiful DevonBear apron

Ingredients

good splash of olive oil
1 or 2 medium onions, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
couple of handfuls of small new potatoes (pre-cook these or use up leftovers)
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
a few thyme sprigs from my own garden
2 bay leaves from my own garden
400g tin chopped tomatoes (but I think when my own are ready I shall use these and just add more stock)
1 pint hot fish or chicken stock
2 courgettes, roughly chopped from my own garden
handful of green beans cut into short lengths from my own garden
some chilli flakes to taste
1 lb white fish fillets (the fish van that visits the village every Thursday has a good selection of mixed fish fillets - only £3.50 for 1 lb)
bunch of parsley, roughly chopped from my own garden

Method

• Heat olive oil in heavy casserole. Add onions and celery, cook for 6-8 mins to soften. Then add carrots, pepper and herbs, then saute for 5-10 mins until veg are lightly golden.


• Add tomatoes and stock to pan, plus courgettes and beans and chilli if desired. Simmer for 5 mins. Thicken with a bit of cornflour/water if desired, then add potatoes, and simmer to warm through potatoes.


• Put most of the fish fillets on top of the vegetable mix in the pan. Give the remaining fish to the newfies who are absolutely starving as they haven't eaten for oh - at least 2 hours.


• Cover and simmer for 5-10 mins (bottom oven of Aga for me) until fish is just cooked through.


• Break the fish into large flakes and gently stir through casserole. Ladle into bowls and eat in secret so that the newfies don't realise what you're doing.

And that's it! It's so delicious you don't even realise it's healthy too. (Can always be followed with chocolate icecream, chocolate cake or best of all chocolate dipped strawberries if desired!)