Welcome Autumn, season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Hello everyone, here we are on the first day of Autumn, my very favourite season of all.  Last night the moon was incredible, lighting up the countryside, casting it's gleam on everything.  Truly magical.  (BTW the photo above was edited by me, but the image was from Google - my photography skills are not quite this good!)

 

I just cant wait to see those autumn colours over the next few weeks!  At the moment I'm looking for a scene to photograph each week to log the changing colours - some of you joined me in the Autumn Photo Challenge last year, it was so lovely to see how the colours changed week by week.  I got the idea from an American website which charts the weekly progress of autumn in New England.

 

So, what has been happening since I was last here in blogland?  A lot has been going on - the illness I mentioned in my last post turned into bronchitis - not very nice.  I had to continue to work throughout which was been tough.  But now on the mend and getting back into the flow, including starting a new job this week which is very exciting! 

So I must give apologies to my lovely Autumn Swap partner - hopefully will be ready to post off my parcel to you by the end of next week.

Anyway, I have been continuing with my crochet.  I found this lovely yarn, which is made in Turkey

 

 It reminded me so much of a pumpkin!  The silver pumpkin is part of my growing pumpkin collection, I just love 'em.

 

 And here is what I made - Autumn Cushion #2:

 

 

 It is such a lovely texture, very comfy and cosy

 

 

 just the thing for snuggling up with on a chilly autumn evening!

 

Well, must away and hang more washing out - it is a lovely, sunny, breezy early autumn day here.  Later on I am going to make a bread and butter pudding, my DH saw one on a TV cooking show last week and has been going on and on (and on and on and on) about it.  This though is an angel cake I made a couple of weeks ago having seen it made (with mixed results) on Great British Bake Off (one of my "must watch" TV shows at the moment)

 

 

It worked out quite well, the inside of the cake was delightfully light and fluffy

 

It didn't hang around very long - this slice was eaten seconds after I took the photo!

 

Have a lovely Sunday.

 

Helenxx



Spooky goings on...

Morning all - I have finally got a day off from work!!!!  Woo hoo!!!!! (just a tad excited about this...) and am off for a jolly with my friend (aka partner-in-crime) Sue from @home.

But in the meantime I can finally update you with our end of October goings-on. Grab a cuppa and a biscuit!!

As mentioned in my last post my daughter did indeed bake up a storm when Sue and co came for dinner - here we have a Jack Skellington cake (we love Nightmare Before Christmas and all things Tim Burton) a very haunted gingerbread house and a yummy pumpkin pie:

Cupcakes, cookies and crispie cakes

Lashings of lentil soup was served up from this pumpkin

Friendly or fiendish?  You decide...

So the next evening, to wear off all this food, we went for a walk around our neighbourhood.  We always love to visit this street as there is an American family living there who always go to town decorating the house for the season

A groaning mummy greets any visitors brave enough to knock on the front door

This lady keeps watch on the proceedings

And spooky faces gleam from the front lawn

 All in all a wonderful couple of evenings with a wonderful bunch of friends!

Have a great Friday!

Helenxx

I love to ride my bicycle...

Hello everyone, hope you are keeping well.

I recently acquired a bike - Im a somewhat rubbish cyclist but enjoy it all the same.  The weekend before last we took a little trip to a farm a few miles from here - it was a nice autumny afternoon.  The farm sell lovely cream teas and other goodies - well I thought we had earned it as we had cycled there!!!! (any excuse...)

Here is my bike parked up while we waited for our refreshments

I had time to wonder - who lives behind a door like this?

Fairies, goblins and elves would feel right at home

And you can imagine my happiness when I spotted these beauties outside the farm shop

One had already magically transformed into this cheeky character...

All in all a lovely couple of hours with DH and daughter - so nice to do something other than work!!!!

Helenxx

Pumpkin delights

Good morning everyone!  This time last Saturday I was sitting in the garden, recovering from a mammoth marking session, enjoying temperatures of 20 degrees!  This week its back to the dining room table, looking out to the garden, which is windswept, wet and cold.  But much more seasonal!

I have quite a few weird obsessions and one of them is Pumpkins!!  I collect pumpkins of all different sorts - I even have a long lasting real gourd!  I have ceramic pumpkins.  Glass pumpkins.  Fabric pumpkins.  Dishes bowls and plates that have a pumpkin theme (either the shape or the motive).  I like to eat pumpkins (especially in a pie!!).  And of course I like to carve them.  But recently I have started to crochet pumpkins - so here is my little pumpkin patch of crochet lovelies (well I like 'em!!)

I have had such fun making them!!The very observant will notice there is also a crochet butternut squash as well in the background (I love those too).

The patterns came from a great blog planet june so if you would like to make your own little pumpkin patch please check it out!  She has some lovely free patterns on the website which I intend to have a go at in the coming weeks.  Thanks June!

Keeping with the pumpkin theme, I have some candle-themed pumpkin - ness going on in the evenings now - I have to say (please don't shout at me) that I do have a liking for the darker evenings.  So these are now gracing my mantelshelf:

I love this little ceramic pumpkin candle holder, it has a grinning jack-o-lantern on one side, but lovely autumn leaves on the other - very tasteful!

Have a lovely Saturday, and keep warm!

Helenxx