I got a brand new combine harvester....

It's the busiest time of year for farmers....



I can't believe the summer we've had.  Still 25 degrees! 

Every day there is the constant drone of combine harvesters.  They are often still out there in the dark. The hedgerows are festooned with straw and I often take my life in my hands when I go for a walk, diving in to the bushes as a tractor comes hurtling past, leaving me engulfed in a cloud of dust. I do think this is the most beautiful time of year.  I couldn't live somewhere that didn't have seasons.  The only down side in late summer/early autumn is the Daddy Long Legs and spiders!  I have to check the shower curtain every morning for leggy imposters.  

We've had some fantastic skies 

I always get that twitchy new term feeling at the beginning of September that makes me want to enrol for (another) Open University course.  Strange, as I didn't enjoy school but I love studying now.  Ooh, the smell of a text book makes me go all goose bumpy and stationery?  Well, I could stand looking at pencil cases in WH Smiths all day.......

Ez making jam tarts, back to school tomorrow 

My geraniums look lovely - I wish I had somewhere to keep them over winter so that I didn't lose them.

I can sit in bed and watch the woodpecker sharpening his beak on the telegraph pole

Great Spotted Woodpecker

Our friend Emma had a birthday picnic on about the only cold rainy day this summer! We even had to get the smelly dog blanket out of the car but we stuck it out, like all mad British people, until we had to retreat back in doors.

Emma's parent's garden is beautiful and a peaceful haven to wander in

I've seen so many good skies these past few weeks.  It's a good time of year to look at the stars too 

Bungalow bake off:

This cake was amazing (once you get your head around the fact that it is savoury and full of garlic - yum).

My cake with courgette, feta and mint - v moist

Sarah's wholemeal bread with Beryl's home-made raspberry jam - too good

The girls brought us back a tiny jug from Italy for the dresser.

The little addition to my jug collection

Big Dog on a mini adventure - we found out later what she had been rolling in - poo!

The whole house smells of vinegar as I can't stop making chutney.  I admit it, I have a pickling problem.  I've run out of jars now - hint to my supplier....!

Spiced carrot and garlic chutney 

Beautiful sunrises too, on my 6.30am morning dog walk

Talking of dogs - meet Twiggy, my friend Hayley's faithful friend

What a handsome girl

Too bright man....

Hayley's chilli plants

Feeding time for her pigs

This is a picture of my kitchen (oh, alright - I lie.......)

Not sure about her green, warty gourd though!

The fields around the bungalow are full of birds which Big Dog likes to flush out 

Fields of corn for the pheasants and partridge

I must stop taking so many pictures of sunsets

Another chutney with courgette, chilli, ginger, garlic, spices - can I wait a month to eat it though?

Courgette chutney

Sarah tried making Focaccia - it was so light

Big Dog looking for something to chase

Carrots don't like our stony soil so we grow them in pots

Well, the sun seems set to continue so no getting my woolies out yet (sigh).  But I yearn for tweed, wool, socks, boots and hats, I really do.  I'll just have to wait.  I don't do summer very well, what with heat rash, constantly applying sun cream, drinking water, searching for shade etc etc.  My thing is roaring fires, fur lined boots, crunchy leaves, hot soup.....  I may not be saying this when we are in the middle of February!

ANOTHER, (there's more?) reason I adore the autumn is that it's the best season for the theatre and arts centre.  We have booked lots of plays, films, concerts etc. I am very excited.

This is one of the reasons that I am taking a bloggers holiday for a while.  Too busy! 

blanching Beryl's apples

decorating a teenager's bedroom

organising a skip

sorting and moving logs

making chutney

freezing runner beans

stewing tomatoes

new yoga term

new writing class (where's that pencil case....)

kids birthdays

Christmas (just don't)

I feel like someone's standing on my chest - agh!

I may be some time.........

We're going where the sun shines brightly...

We're going where the sea is blue....

I love holidays at home!

What could be better?  No scrabbling in your bag for your passport, no sweating at the departure gate because you have forgotten to get rid of that bottle of water, no watching the same lonely case go around the conveyor belt for the tenth time and worrying that yours is lost, no trying to order food in a foreign language -just waking up naturally in your own bed and wondering what adventures the day will bring.  Nice.

Last week we were mostly not at work.

Saturday:

I tried a salad out of a brilliant book that I borrowed from the Library, 'A Salad for All Seasons' by Harry Eastwood (page 155).  Tesco's gave us 4 packs of Stilton this week instead of 1 so I had to find lots of things to do with it!  I made a Stilton quiche too.

Stilton, apple and walnut salad

Sunday:

We tried out a new walk in the village to burn off a cooked breaky.

We found this lake at the top of a hill with a little wooden bench next to it.

Seeing pigs was a bonus.  Nice ears.

Monday:

Wilton House - only rainy day.

Wilton House

I have only lived near Wilton House for the last 32 years!  Why do we never see what is on our doorstep?
I have visited the gardens many, many times but have never ventured inside.  I was so excited to see the famous Double Cube Room.  Wilton House has been used for many films, such as The Madness of King George, Sense & Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

The Knot Garden

We were lucky, we almost had the place to ourselves!

Inside the front hall is a large statue of Shakespeare and the guide told us that he quite often visited.  'As You Like It' was first performed here.

The D-Day landings were planned in the Double Cube room and I didn't know that the house holds the largest private collection of Van Dyke paintings in the world.

When we got home we sat looking out at the pouring rain, eating a cream tea and trying to do the crossword.

Tuesday:

Malmesbury Abbey House Gardens. (Another first)

These gardens are the home of 'The Naked Gardeners' Ian and Barbara Pollard.  We didn't visit on an arranged 'clothes optional day'!

Sarah admiring the formal garden

I like gardens that are relaxed, arty and have strange statues or topiary - these gardens were perfect!

What is that?!

This is Brutus, the pet tortoise

I love a good archway

Benedictine Monks gardened here

Anyone for chess?

I have never seen so many roses, but unfortunately they were past their best.  There were still masses of gorgeous blooms though.

Lily

These beauties were covered with bees in the herb garden

Echinacea - I want some!

We saw these hiding in the woods.  We have some at home on the drive.  I don't know why I like them so much.  May be they remind me of a book I had as a child called 'Flower Fairies of the Autumn'.

Lords and Ladies

Other names:  Cuckoo-pint
Jack-in-the-pulpit
Wild Arum

We descended down through the wooded glade to the River Avon.  It is hard to believe that a lot of this wasn't here or even accessible before 1994 when the current owners bought the house and gardens.

A Monastic fish pond

www.abbeyhousegardens.co.uk

On the way home we enjoyed a delicious cream tea (with the obligatory wasps) in Castle Combe, a village renowned for it's pretty, quaint streets and also a popular film set!  ('Dr Dolittle', 'Stardust', 'War Horse' etc, etc).  I know it very well as my family are from round these parts.  

Cream tea (no. 2)

It's good to know that we aren't the only ones to have a wasp problem.  The farm manager had to drive his 'grabber' up our drive so he could squirt foam in to next door's wasp nest too!

Wednesday:

Grovely Woods

Yet another first!  I have always wanted to walk from one end of Grovely Woods to the other, to join the dots and see what it's like in the middle!  It was quite a complicated affair as we weren't sure we could walk there and back (10 miles) so we drove both cars one end and then drove Sarah's back to the start (hoping that we'd be able to find my car again at the end of the walk!).  We ended up walking further than the 5 miles as we did get slightly lost.  It looks like a straight line on the map - it's not. 

We were very excited to see Fungi already.

One of my favourites - a Lurid Bolete (if you cut it, it turns blue - very strange)

It's so hard to identify Fungi!

Rooting Shank?  

We took a flask of coffee and a picnic in the backpack

I think that is a Pearl-Bordered Fritillary

By the time we reached the middle of the woods we saw no one.  

We saw Peacock and Red Admiral butterflies

Himalayan Balsam

Other names: Policeman's helmet

Kiss me on the mountain

Gnome's hat stand

I thought I had stumbled on a huge, rare Orchid but it is actually called 'Poor Man's Orchid' - says it all really.  It was introduced from the Himalayas in 1839 as a garden ornamental and can grow up to 3 metres high!  It is the tallest annual plant grown in Britain and is closely related to the 'Busy Lizzy'.  

Thursday:

Hengistbury Head

The v v expensive beach huts at Mudeford - I can look

Heathers

View of Christchurch to Mudeford

I found mostly Slipper Limpets

and Tortoiseshell Limpets

Friday:

New Forest

We are very lucky to live near to the coast and the forest.  Even though I love the sea, if I had to choose it would be the woods every time.  The New Forest is only 14 miles from our bungalow and takes half an hour to get there.  We try to visit a different area each time but it is so large and varied in landscape that we could explore it for the rest of our lives and not see it all.  

This time, we tried 'Telegraph Hill'.  It was quite windy in the car park but I later found out that it is the second highest point in the forest (128m above sea level).  How this area of the forest got it's name is interesting.  It was the site of a 19th Century optical shutter signal station.  It was one in a line stretching all the way from Plymouth to the Admiralty in London and used during the Napoleonic war to send messages at speed.  Apparently the shutters were opened and shut whilst someone with a telescope relayed the message down the line.  A message could travel from London to Plymouth in 20 minutes!!!   In poor visibility the message would be carried to the next station by a rider on horseback.  

Dosn't that look sooooo inviting....

Yellow Hoary Cinquefoil

Foxglove

A fungi lover's paradise

Pale Oyster Mushroom

Hoof Fungus

Dorset Heather

Bell Heather

Heath or Bog Heather

A dead heather!

Ling

We then had a weekend trying not to think about work looming on the horizon and being a bit manic and clingy about the house and garden.

The Rudbeckia that my sister grew from seed looks so good in our front garden

My sunflowers

I tried to ignore the ducks quacking and read my book

Sarah's peppers are getting rather large

How many different ways can you cook runner beans?

We found more fungi on a walk

Dryad's Saddle fungi

And we had a bake off:

Cheese and bacon loaf v chocolate chunk cookies

Best loaf yet.  So delicious just with butter and the next day as a bacon sarny - I nearly imploded.

We always wear our dogs out.  We went on so many long walks last week that she is now lying on her bed with all four paws in the air and begging us (with her eyes) to go back to work.  Still, a fab time was had by all and I suppose all good things must come to an end........