Okay, I think that it’s safe to say that the Indian Summer is over. It looks like autumn, it feels like autumn, and by golly it is autumn. Short days, colouring of the leaves that are still on trees, a chill in the air. At Moyns Park there is an ever increasing sized mat of yellow, brown and gold forming beneath the Beech, Lime and Horse Chestnut trees in particular. Squirrels are frantically gathering and storing goodies in caches that they will forget the location of, resulting in tree seedlings appearing next year in the most random locations.
Huge numbers of deer are congregating on the parkland early and late in the day (and spending much of the night in the orchard, as evidenced by my trailcam). On Friday evening as I left there were in excess of 50 head all together out in the open. As I approached they began moving off like a rolling Atlantic swell of legs and antlers, and like the wave crashing onto the beach and dispersing into the sand so the herd disappeared silently and without trace into the dark woodland save for the odd glimpse of a white rump receding into the gloom.
Badgers are visiting the garden every night now and are digging everywhere in search of earthworms, leaving a pockmarked trail of destruction in their wake. I can put my finger in the hole in the dam, but I know that further breaches will appear elsewhere the moment I do, but I suppose that I should go through the motions.
Yesterday afternoon after several days of not seeing it I spotted D’Arcy the hare around the back of the potting shed. At least I assume that it was him, because he allowed me to get reasonably close to him, and had a little relaxed stretch and shake before turning and lolloping away slowly. I was pleased to see him as I have grown emotionally attached to him, which is probably not wise, but I am a softie so I will no doubt continue to be gooey about him. It feels like such a privilege to have been trusted by him to the extent that he appears to have.
I took one of my favourite machines to my pub friend Darren to be fixed last week. It is my Goldoni rotavator, and it has been sitting idle for a couple of years. Don’t ask me why I have left it so long to have it looked at because I don’t have an answer, it’s another of my faults, to put things off. For the past two springs I have dragged the machine out of its shed, have pulled the starting cord until my shoulder could take no more, cleaned up the spark plug, pulled again – on a couple of occasions it would try to splutter into life, backfire then die. After some cussing I pushed the thing back into the shed and left it for another 12 months. Darren knows what he is doing, he stripped the carburetor, changed a fuel line, fitted a new spark plug, changed the oil, greased some nipples, and hey presto she’s back with me and running like a dream. When it comes to machines I am useless, so this goes to prove that networking in the pub is time very well spent. Cheers, mine’s a pint.
The shop has a couple of different items in it this week. There will be a limited number of cauliflowers, and as well as regular carrots there will be rainbow ones too. Both come from a large organic farm towards the Suffolk coast near Woodbridge, as do the French beans which will probably finish this week. There are savoy cabbages, kale, perpetual spinach, red cabbage, leeks, red and brown onions, Blue Kuri squash, beetroot, parsnips and sweet potatoes. With this autumnal weather comes the urge for comforting stews, casseroles and soups, so I think that I have mostly got you covered on the veg front. We really are down to the last of the tomatoes, and they will be a mixture of whatever is left to pick. There are still a few green peppers to harvest too. Lemons are yellow ‘Fino’ this week, culinary apples are Cox, and there are also still cookers.
There was a lot of borage grown locally this year and the current batch of honey is evidence of that. It is very pale in colour and is much sought after by some honey fans. I have kept bees for 37 years and whilst I don’t dislike it I have never been a great lover of the stuff, it’s just too sweet for me.
Last evening there was a performance by a troupe of shanty singers, ‘A Pint of Shanty’, in our village hall. I was very much in two minds about whether or not to attend as shanty is not my favourite music genre. I quite like to hear one or two songs but quickly tire of its repetitiveness (in my opinion). Well last night I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed the performance, which was part singing part acting. I am not a convert, but I am happy to say that I was very well entertained. If they perform near you I recommend giving them a couple of hours of your time.
I haven’t taken Nellie for a walk yet, put off my the rain and a chilly wind, but I am going to have to be a brave soldier and get out there, so I will leave this here. It’s a changeable week of weather, with talk of a storm towards the end of the week, so keep safe, warm and dry, oh and don’t forget that the clocks change next weekend.
Phil