It’s my birthday today, I’ve had family round to celebrate the occasion….so I’m all behind. That means I’m going to crack on, otherwise the evening will be gone before I know it.

It’s a busy time for me socially, and I’m not the most sociable of creatures. Yesterday I was at the wedding of my step-grandson James and the lovely Lucy. On Tuesday evening we are at a do at the Apex in Bury, and on Thursday I am at the Quay theatre in Sudbury with my walking pals for a talk ‘My Mountain Life’ by Simon Yates of ‘Touching the Void’ fame, an epic tale of survival in the Peruvian Andes, which promises to be very interesting.

The wedding was held in the Anne of Cleeves barn at Great Lodge just outside Great Bardfield in Essex, not much more than a mile by footpath from the house where I was born, and about 200 metres from the farm cottage where I first lived with Jennifer more than 40 years ago. It was a lovely place to live, half a mile down a farm track, and at that time the barn, given to Anne of Cleeves by Henry VIII as part of their divorce settlement, was still being used as a grain store on the farm. It has been transformed into a beautiful wedding and events venue, and the farm has diversified, with part of it now a vineyard. Across the yard from the barn is a single story dwelling, Stockyard Cottage, where renowned Essex artist Walter Hoyle once lived, and  it is still inhabited by the same lovely French woman who lived there when we did all those years ago. It was a real trip down memory lane, very nostalgic, and the wedding was delightful too.

I took the first batch of apples to be pressed last Wednesday, about 200kg – all Discovery. David the apple man greeted me with a smile and cheerfully announced “you won’t get much juice from them”. “More than if I hadn’t brought them” I retorted, mildly annoyed. Apparently they were a week past their best. He was going to press them promptly, but I haven’t heard that the juice is ready yet, which is a shame because I would have liked to have been able to offer it this week. I have so many apples to pick, but with gusts of wind in excess of 50mph tomorrow I’m not sure that I want to be perched on a ladder. I just hope that they don’t all get blown off the tree before I can pick them.

It’s autumn. The change in seasons is now very obvious, meteorologically, in terms of daylight hours, and how plants are responding. All of my summer crops have decided that enough is enough, so we are saying goodbye to courgettes, cucumbers and my own tomatoes. There are a few stragglers of each, but not enough to offer in the shop, so its contents are somewhat different this week. New introductions are purple kohlrabi, sweet potatoes and leeks. There will be mini plum tomatoes from the Isle of Wight, red peppers, and some French beans – not mine (which were a disaster darlings), but they are from Suffolk

Going back to apples, the ‘eaters’ will be a different variety this week, and there are still cookers. Oh and there is a return of Honey (a pale one – I think there is probably a lot of Borage in it) and I will make pesto with the last pick of basil.

Look I know this hasn’t been the most entertaining of blogs, but give me a break, IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! So I am going to slip into something more comfortable and relax for the rest of my special day. If you are a frequenter of the farmers’ market, I will be there for the duration next Saturday so you don’t need to rush your breakfast.

Batten down the hatches and have a good week.

Phil