Monday 9 September 2019

Change of season.



Our mornings are now cool, currently around 6 C; rising to above 25 C in the late afternoon. The pool's temperature indicator, is leaning towards 'unswimmable'. Autumn is very much on its way.

The orchard is covered with fallen Apples, Peaches, and Figs; and our Quinces are being thrown by the children for Billy to retrieve. Wasps and Hornets will soon be with us as the Grapes ripen and become sweet.

We are desperate for rain. Molehills have become large piles of fine dust. Nothing is growing. Watering Haddock's doesn't help. If we don't have a good downpour quite soon, we'll have no more Aubergines, Peppers, or Courgettes, and the few late Cauli's I planted will shrivel and die. But most importantly the Chestnuts will refuse to swell, and we'll have no Mushrooms.

On the plus side, most of the tourists have returned home, the lawns have hardly needed mowing for weeks, and our evenings are still warm enough not to warrant a fire. I continue to sleep on top of the duvet, rather than under it.

I'm now looking forward to finding Choucroute in the shops, to eating buttered baked Potatoes, and preparing wine-rich casseroles of Beef, Chicken, or Rabbit.

Lady M has filled countless freezer bags with cooked Bramley Apple, and I, in turn, have supplied plenty of Blackberries. I have prepared a decidedly small amount of Tomato based preserves; but luckily we still have a good supply from last year, so we should be OK.

It won't be long before trailer loads of Chestnut and Oak logs are added to our dwindled piles, and we'll be ready for the cold.

I shall continue to wear shorts for a while; returning to longs is defeatism. It may be Autumn, but my legs are unaware.

23 comments:

  1. That all sounds pretty good. I assume from that that you still have the family staying with you.

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    Replies
    1. Wills, Kellogg, and the boys are still here; not sure for how long.

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  2. Those apples look good. What variety are they?

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    1. Bramleys; that lot were windfalls that the children had collected. We are inundated!

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  3. Good soaking rain in Somerset. Tomatoes doing well but as with you I have not managed to preserve any. Chinese cabbages doing well, French beans were a disaster this year, probably due to Brexit. The broad beans were fine.

    I am supposed to be painting windows ready for winter. It has been too hot and now it is too wet, I have everything laid out in the garage ready to spring into action. I will say one thing for modern life, water based exterior gloss paints are a godsend!

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    Replies
    1. It's been a funny old growing year here. It's now so dry that water just doesn't penetrate anymore; and no rain on the horizon. A bit of a disaster, I blame Brexit too.

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  4. Replies
    1. The children have been climbing the tree, and throwing the fruits for the dog to retrieve. I haven't discouraged them!

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  5. I've frozen plenty of herbs but that's about it chez Edwards.

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    Replies
    1. Luckily our winter greens are looking OK, otherwise it's all been a bit hit-n-miss.

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  6. Young lads in Melbourne are wearing shorts in freezing cold temps of 14 degrees. As you go to cold, we go to hot.

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    Replies
    1. Male postmen in the UK seem to wear shorts all your round. I think the trend came from Oz.

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  7. It is cold here today. I am sitting by the fire.

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    Replies
    1. I refuse to light a fire quite yet. This weekend our temps are going up to over 30 C again, so the fires can wait.

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  8. 10C when I got up this morning but up to 23 by this afternoon. We will be up and down all this month but much cooler overnight and Fall is definitely in the air - and a few trees are starting to turn colour already. Had to actually wear a sweater a couple of times last week!
    We've had enough rain to keep things very green - and we will get a few more showers this week but returning to tons of sunshine with temps around 21C all next week - perfect weather!
    Hope you get some rain soon.

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    1. It's so dry here. I've just checked our Meteo, and we may have some overnight rain. What we really need is about two days of steady rain, but none on horizon.

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  9. Driving home over the top of the Pennines today I noticed that the Horse Chestnut Trees are changing colour at a very rapid rate.

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    Replies
    1. Our first trees to go are the wild Cherries, and they have certainly started to drop their leaves.

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  10. Cold and wet here..the blackberries have started to ripen fast but we need some dry weather!

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    Replies
    1. We had a tiny drop of rain during the night, but only enough to wet our outdoor chairs.

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  11. Drought and warm/cold here, too...only difference really is the misery of hayfever as spring has sprung! I made my one and only quince dish last month, shop-bought of course - duck and quince tagine. A once-a-year treat here but would only deal with 2 or 3 of your tree's bounty, so not helpful information!

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    Replies
    1. We eat about 2 or 3 too, usually sliced with either roast Pork or Chicken. They are very good, but far too much work.

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