Blogtober - Day Thirty One

Well, here we are the last day of Blogtober.  Thirty one days of posts some happy, some not so, some easy to write, others not so.  Some days knowing exactly what I wanted to write about, others struggling for inspiration and words.

I want to say a big Thank You to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments.  I've enjoyed  reading your comments immensely and have enjoyed replying to them.  I hope to catch up with your blogs over the next day or two if I haven't already done so.

It's All Hallows' Eve.  I don't know if we will have any 'trick or treat' children around.  I have a little packet of sweets just in case.  I think the idea in the area, according to the local on-line forum, is that if you wish to have knocks at the door you put some sort of decoration outside or in your window.  Quite a few houses around have decorations in the window or carved pumpkins outside the door already.

Paul has carved our pumpkin, it's only a small one and there is enough flesh left to make soup.

I went into the garden to collect some leaves for the pumkin to sit on.

Whilst I was out there I collect a few of the last blooms of October for the kitchen table.

Cosmos, Echinacia, hardy Geranium and Verbena.

Look what has opened up overnight.

The first Paperwhite flowers to take us into November.

Blogtober - Day Thirty

It's the last Sunday in October and the clocks have gone back to Greenwich Mean Time and we have left British Summer Time behind.  A couple of the clocks were put back an hour last night also the heating. One or two more still need to be done.  Not that we've got that many.  

It was grey but calm this morning so we went out for a walk locally.  Home made soup when we got home, with homemade rolls.  Very warming and tasty.  Although not much warming was needed as it has been so mild over the last couple of days.

Leek and Potato

Yesterday the leaves were raked up from the lawn but of course, there are more there again today.

They are now in the compost bin.

 

I didn't take many photos on our walk today so below are a few I took on a walk earlier this week, just from home to the local park where the trees were looking autumnal.

 

All for now.

Blogtober - Day Twenty Nine

What a nuisance. One of the badgers has been digging again.  Last time it was one of the potatoes this time it was the blueberry plant.  We only have one.  We bought it from a supermarket, well rescued it as it looked worse for wear and had been reduced in price.

 I do love to see the badgers when we capture them on the trail camera.  A couple of weeks ago we saw four of them two the usual badger colour and two pale grey ones.  We've only seen one large pale grey badger before and she's been around for a few years and we call her Mrs Bustle as she does bustle around the garden and keep the others in order.  Now we have two pale badgers both female. First time they have been seen together.

These are camera stills from a couple of years ago.

Anyway, back to the blueberry. It has fruited for a few years and produces just a handful of berries.  It has got a bit bigger but not much but it does come back each year.  It was teased out of the soil, trimmed back and placed in a pot which has now been put in the greenhouse.

I hope it survives.

Blogtober - Day Twenty Eight

It's been a slow meandering day today after yesterday's little outing.  It was pouring with rain first thing and we were keeping our fingers crossed that it was going to clear later - it did.  I had to stay in for a prescription delivery so washed some towels which dried nicely outside this afternoon.  Paul completed some hedge trimming.  We still need to collect leaves for compost and this may get done over the weekend when I hope it will be less windy.

I've filled three bags with clothes, bags and shoes I no longer use or wear ready to take to a charity shop.  Little goals reached in a day go a long way to feeling that things have been achieved.  I'm tired now and not very inspired to write much more.

I've been looking through photos seeking inspiration and found one or two. Below is a seasonal photo taken a few years ago at Ford Green Hall.

I'm hoping we can visit again soon as it seems ages since our last visit.

 

This is the last photo I took of the hall.  I think the roof has been replaced over the last couple of years.

The Green Man was there too.

 

I'll be back tomorrow.

Blogtober - Day Twenty Seven

 It was rather wet and dull this morning although by the time we reached the little town of Nantwich in Cheshire it had stopped raining.

I took a few photos as we wandered around.  There are some lovely historic buildings in the town.  We only spent a couple of hours there and didn't get across the main road to Welsh Row where there are many more lovely historic buildings. 

St Mary's Church

Below is the Museum

I'm always intrigued by the windows on the building below.

 

This shop was built in 1911 as a grocery shop for P H Chesters.  It was designed in the French Baroque style by Ernest H Edleston.

 

The black and white building is a bookshop and coffee shop it was very busy today so we walked by.  We've been in a few times before when it was a bookshop with coffee shop now it's more coffee shop with books.

There are lots of black and white buildings in Nantwich.  Many were destroyed or damaged on 10th December 1583 when fire swept through the town.  It was started accidentally by a brewer and one hundred and fifty buildings were lost over the twenty days the fire lasted

. 

Below is Sweet Briar Hall.

As the sign says noted chemist Joseph Priestley lived here from 1758 to 1761.  He was a member of the Lunar Society with other scientists and philosophers of the day.  People like Erasmus Darwin, Josiah Wedgwood. Matthew Bolton and James Watt.

Above and below The Cocoa Yard 

 Below a few things that caught my eye

All the displays in the shop windows were seasonally  celebrating Halloween.

Blogtober - Day Twenty Six

I woke in the night to hear the wind whistling through the trees and around the window gently swishing the curtains.  I felt the breeze across my face as we always sleep with a small window open unless it is very, very cold. 

Leaves were strewn across the top lawn this morning.  Now as I write this the wind is quite strong again and they are blowing all over the garden.  They will have to be collected and composted.

The leaves across the lawn are mostly from the Tulip Tree (Liriodendron) which has grown so tall now.  We bought it about twenty years ago and brought it home from the garden centre sitting in the back of the car.   It stayed in its pot for a year or two before we decided where to place it.

 

 Hard to believe it was so small.  It hasn't ever flowered yet.  I hope it will. Apparently it takes twenty to thirty years to flower.  I guess the weather conditions have to be right too.

At the top of the other side of the garden a ring of fungi has appeared around the birch tree we planted last year.

You can just about see them in the photo above.
 

A variety of birds are returning to the garden
 .  As well as Goldfinches this week we spotted a Greenfinch and a Chaffinch.  Also Great Tits, a Robin and a Dunnock. We regularly have seven Collard Doves call in the early morning for food.  They wait, sitting along the top of the greenhouse roof, eyes on the back door.  Blackbirds seem for the moment to have disappeared. I hope they return.

Blogtober - Day Twenty Five

Last evening as soon as it went dark there were fireworks popping and fizzing around and about for the celebration of Diwali.  This morning we have sunshine and have been for a local walk.  I have washing drying outside flapping in the breeze.  Wheelie bins were emptied early so we could fetch them in before our walk.  Today was the last collection of garden waste until next  Spring so the bin will be washed out and put away.

 Below are some glorious Autumn Trees spotted on yesterday's walk.  Leaves crunching underfoot, fungi growing through the fallen leaves and a Walnut tree.

There was a partial eclipse of the sun today sometime between 10a.m. and noon.  We were out walking but didn't sense anything different. The winter sun seemed low as usual, I always struggle to see in winter sunlight. I remember a few years ago we saw a partial eclipse in Wales, the birds went quiet and the light faded slightly, we watched it with our backs to the sun, reflected through a hastily constructed pin hole camera made from cardboard.

Apparently it's world pasta day today.  I didn't know, did you?