One minute we were chopping cucumber and strawberries for a late summer Pimms. The next it was sunflower bouquets and homemade cakes-all to quietly celebrate another birthday, another decade of perfect days slipping into sunsets and starry nights, a new decade freshly begun.
For September though, I was completely overwhelmed with work. Unbeknownst to me the last of the summer,  and ‘Evenings steep’d in honied indolence’ (Keats Ode to Indolence) slipped away while I sat hunched over my desk.
When I next looked up the Lilly flowers in the pond were getting lazy, opening later and later, the pond topped up by pelting rain, and the leaves on the  trees  were fringed with gold. Where does the time vanish? Everything goes so fast, life is shortening, and with it comes an increased urgency (and not just to race to the loo), I don’t want to waste a second of it.  But perhaps the secret is not to speed up, but to slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures.  Especially in Autumn because you never know how long you have it for. Sometimes it will stretch through Halloween and Guy Fawkes to Christmas, other years a fiery display of autumn cover is victim to a wet storm, and that’s it, the glories of autumn turned into soggy dark mulch. For now though it is early autumn and the sun still warm. The AGA is on but we haven’t lit fires yet.
The apple tree that blushed pink with blossom in spring, surrounded by pollen coated bees is now laden with fruit. There are faded ribbons on its boughs from when we used to wassail the tree, BB and Archie as tots, banging pots with wooden spoons and singing to the tree to awake it from its wintry slumbers. Every day I slide trays of crunchy cooking apples into the Aga; baked apple for breakfast, baked apple for pudding, baked apple with a cup of tea, The freezer is rammed full of cored apples waiting for me to make home made mincemeat. Â The evenings of BBQs and salads eaten outside under fairy lights are behind us. Now it’s roast chicken and potatoes in the Aga, with soups made from overnight chicken stock- carrot and coriander, leek and potato.
I’ve planted strawberry plants for next year, and thought about the vegetables I will be growing  in my little orte- zucchini, tomatoes, basil.  I’ve planted spring bulbs but as soon as I plant them the squirrel excavates them and they are gone. But for now the earth is soft from rain and I have been weeding out the couch grass, and transplanting the perennials ready for their long sleep.  Soon the first frost will come, making the soil rock hard and turning cobwebs into filigree lace.Â
Apart from work, and settling the garden down for its winter sleep, we have had the odd day off – wine tasting We’ve  at Chapel Down, https://chapeldown.com and Culture Vulturing at Ightham Mote. https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/kent/ightham-mote
We’ve been working hard, but now its time to cuddle up on the sofas,  put our feet up and celebrate the little joys in life… Michaelmas daisies in a jug painted by toddler Archie and a fabulous loo seat notice spotted by GS on the train… GS says that having a loo seat makes this bloglet disjointed  but I think its all about the simple pleasures of life, and what better than  Southern railways loo seat humour!
I really hope you have enjoyed my bloglet, written on lazy afternoon under the duvet with the rain pattering down outside. May your autumn be full of simple, little pleasures too!
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2 Comments
So cosy!!!!!!! I love it 🙂
So glad you like it! xxx