Shades of Autumn

 

 

 

 

Pruning some overhanging branches of acer in the garden gave me some glorious autumn foliage to bring into the house. I'm loving the bright, fiery red colours, and mixed with some other dark foliage and honeysuckle berries it makes a lovely mix of autumn colour.

 

The hint of autumn in the air, despite the last few days of wonderful Indian summer weather, has had me reaching for my crochet hook and finding some autumn hued wools.

 

I have ideas for a hexy scarf to go with my new green raincoat......

 

and the colours on this velvet backed tapestry cushion from Ikea a few seasons ago have given me ideas for a few autumn coloured textured cushions for the sofa.

 

Four 8  inch squares of simple double crochet joined together.......

and I tried out bobble stitch for another cushion - again I will make four squares

The cooking apples have already been picked in the orchards nearby, and every walk we do now through the orchards and fields, instead of harvesting kilos of blackberries for the freezer, we are now picking up the few dropped apples left behind.

 

Lots of lovely apple cakes and puddings to come! I made a Tarte Tatin last week, and an apple cake the week before. Many of the apples I will cook and freeze ready for pies and crumbles.

Spending more time in the kitchen now that the weather is changing, I couldn't resist these two pretty Greengate tea towels from All Tea Towels - Al sends these off from Ireland as quick as a flash, free postage to the UK and they arrive the next day - perfect!

 

 

With the warm weather we've had these last few days, I got back into my shorts and back into the garden to tart it up a bit for the autumn. It had been looking very sad, dry and colourless the last few weeks of summer, and so I have put in a few autumn flowering plants - some lovely bright Asters, lots of pretty violas in lemons,  orange, pale blue and purple ( I have always preferred these smaller and more delicate flowers to pansies, they seem to go on and on forever) , some gorgeous pink chrysanthemums in pots, and some purple platycodons that I have never tried before.

 

Chrysanthemums
 

 

 

 

violas in hanging baskets

 

Platycodons - just love the clever way they open up like a box - they make me think of origami, or japanese omiyage

 

I found a bit of time the other day to do some sewing - a little bit of  machine quilting....

 

these hand sewn hexies will eventually be transformed into a bag! 

Really?? Oh yes they will........one day... I have bought the leather straps ready to finish.. just need to cut to shape, sew together, line it, and sew on the straps... just waiting to be in the mood to finish it!

Out on the terrace the geranuims are still flowering.........

and we have been busy painting the back windows and doors.......getting rid of the black paint that we are fed up with (here when we moved in) and replacing it with white windows and duck egg blue doors

still another coat to put on the French windows

having had the climbers removed from the back walls (they have left all sorts of little clingy bits where the plants clung to the wall as well as discolouration) these are now in dire need of paint too, and we shall replace the white with a pale cream.

this hollyhock is still going strong - photo taken this morning - a sign that summer is hanging in there just a little bit longer

Thanks for all the comments on my last post, I'm glad you enjoyed the photos numerous though they were. Enjoy this lovely weather whilst it lasts!