Category: general stuff

autumn · foxes in my garden · garden stuff · general stuff · wildlife

Autumny things :: garden

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)31 Comments

‘Ode to Autumn’ by Keats sums up the arrival of Autumn here…

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless, With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells, With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells…

It’s all mellow fruitfulness here and my gourds have swelled nicely 😉  as you can see above. Although I don’t think they are actually as big as the ones I grew last year. Every year I vow to nurture the plants with regular watering and plant feed but my good intentions slip as the weeks fly past. Next year I’ll strive to be a better gardener.

The carrots have done quite well though and we’ve been enjoying them mixed with herbs and shop-bought sweet potatoes, fennel, onions and parsnips and roasted in the oven.

We’ve also had some wonderful cooking apples thanks to having generous and kind neighbours with very productive Bramley trees and so we’ve been enjoying a lot of apple cake, apple crumble and my current favourite ‘apple brown betty’ made with left-over homemade bread, butter and brown sugar.

The chickens are laying well and being rewarded with regular jaunts in the garden for a spot of free-range foraging.

Though I’ve not told them of the recent visitor that has been coming regularly to our front garden, as I think they’d be alarmed!

Seeing this beautiful fox has delighted me though. Last week I was really lucky to have a great view and took these pictures through my bedroom window just after dawn. I watched him for 20 minutes or so as he rooted round in the ruins of our front garden – we’ve had a lot of leylandii conifers taken out as they’d got too big and scraggy so the front garden is a complete mess at the moment but it is obviously the perfect playground for a curious and bold fox. I’d dumped the contents of the compost bin out there ready to be dug in and he was enjoying picking through and finding the egg shells. He didn’t even budge when a car drove by, just pricked up his ears and bristled with caution, ready to run should the need arise. I hope he sticks around because he’s a very handsome chap and is wonderful to watch but I also hope that the run keeps my fluffy ladies safe from becoming his dinner!

That’s all my news from the garden but I’ll pop back soon, hope you have a good week.

general stuff · summer

late summer snippets

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)40 Comments

Our last few weeks of the summer break have been busy and lazy in equal measures. There’s been plenty of laying about in PJs days and days full of action and activity…

A trip to Forty Hall with Amy and her boyfriend. A wonderful 1620’s built, Jacobean mansion house with amazing plaster-work ceilings and beautiful parkland where we wandered, watched wildlife and picnicked.

A walk around Aldworth in Berkshire with Gran and Granddad, watching the buzzards and red kites, listening to the skylarks and finishing in style at the pub.

And the highlight for Toby was a little hot-tubbing in a gorgeous garden with a beautiful family friend. Thanks to Julia, Josie and Kitty for the lovely afternoon x

We’re now settling into comfortable term-time routines though it might be a week or so until I’m back to full blogging strength – I’m convalescing at the moment after a rather nasty encounter with staphylococcus which somehow found it’s way into the tiniest of cuts on my finger and from there proceeded to party up my whole arm via my lymphatic system. Happily a hefty course of antibiotics seem to be getting the message across that staph is not welcome here and my finger is starting to resemble a finger again rather than an alarming purple sausage. The most frightening thing was the speed with which the red line spread up my arm so please, if you have a little cut which looks like nothing but you then feel a bit unwell with a swollen armpit a few days later, get yourself to the doctor quickly and get it checked out! And chicken keepers – always wear gloves when you clean the food and drink containers, even if you are in a hurry!

Anyway, I hope to be back soon to celebrate my little blogging anniversary, til then keep well xxx

 

general stuff · summer · wildlife

snippets from the last week

Julie (little Cotton Rabbits)40 Comments

  • Gathering up the fallen plums from our tree to make jam and enjoying eating it on toast for breakfast.
  • Crocheting little supports for the squash which are getting heavy now.
  • Waving to the Dakota plane which flew directly over our house on it’s way to the VJ day commemorations in central London and thinking about everything faced by a generation we’ve come to view as the bravest and most selfless in our history.
  • Re-homing hydrangea heads bent by the heavy rain.
  • Rainy days wet enough to make a frog frolic and balmy August afternoons perfect for basking butterflies.

Summer is passing quickly and we’re trying to make the most of the long days. Hope the days are enjoyable with you too.