Sunday 21 September 2008

The first day of Autumn

Today is the first day of autumn but the weather this weekend has been warm and sunny, it seems we are finally getting a bit of summer weather. Yesterday we were out most of the day and spent quite a lot of time indoors but today we had nothing planned and I made sure I spent most of the time in the garden making the most of the unexpected sunshine.



My husband gave the chicken coop a thorough clean and tidy. He disinfected it and stood all the pieces in the sun to dry. The chickens were definitely a bit put out by the whole process.

Just a few things left in the garden to harvest, a few autumn raspberries

and some tomatoes. Everything is packed close together in our little garden and the tomatoes have grown into the grape vine. Despite all the wet weather, the grapes seem to be really small this year.


I picked most of the Bramley apples today. I needed the ladder to pick some of the higher ones and decided to prune the tree at the same time. I tried to make it into a nice symmetrical shape but it still is a very lopsided tree.




I think I might have been a bit late picking as the blackbirds had already sampled some apples. I sorted them into apples for storage and apples to cook straight away.


Unfortunately rather a lot fell into the cook straight away category. I brought my preserving pan into the garden and sat in the sun peeling and chopping a pan full of apple. We now have lots of stewed apple to eat this week and in the kitchen at the moment, three jars of apple are back in the pan and coming up to temperature.

So the first day of autumn was very pleasant and productive, though I wouldn't mind a break from peeling apples!

7 comments:

ginny said...

I have got some peeling to do too as a friend has given me lots of apples from her tree...we have some lovely eaters from our small tree and both my husband and girls have taken them to work/school as their mid morning snacks.

thank you for your comment... it would be lovely to meet you ... i will keep my fingers crossed.
Have a lovely week willow.
with love
ginny x

Pipany said...

Hello Willow. first time I have visited your blog and it is lovely. Will be back for more x

BurdockBoy said...

Sounds like your autumn day was lovely. We've had wonderful weather for about a 2 weeks, but yesterday and today has been cool and rainy. Frost warnings tonight as well so it's back to covering.

Simply Authentic said...

Imagine that-we may have been peeling apples at the same time! I loved the pictures of everything in the yard. Seems like you have quite a bit going on there. What a great start to fall!

shadows and clouds said...

i can empathise - we did the apple thing the other week - SOOOOOO many were peeled! i got a hard skin blister on my finger in fact! but it's so nice knowing that there're stewed apples and apple jams waiting for us for the winter! enjoy!samy

Compostwoman said...

Its a lovely time of year...I love the weather and the colours you have shown

Compostwoman said...

Its a lovely time of year...I love the weather and the colours you have shown