Autumn Lamentations . . .

In the other gardens,

And all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires,

See the smoke trail.

Pleasant summer over,

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall.

~Robert Louis Stevenson 

 

It seems in an awful hurry to get here this year.  The temperatures have definitely dropped and the wind is blowing rain against the windows this morning.  Everything has a definitive autumnal feel to it.  Today I am embracing Autumn . . . despite the rain and wind, there is so much more to love about this time of year than there is to mourn! 

  

Yes to dancing leaves!  Skittering across the pavement, they make a joyful sound as they flounce here and there and whirl and twirl, skating upon the very music of the air. I love the changing colours of the leaves.  I first noticed them beginning to change about the time I noticed the days getting decidedly shorter and now it is unmistakable.  The change is upon us.  I think that the Horse Chestnut trees are the first to really show it. 

 

They blaze along the roadway down to the main road which leads to the retail park . . . . the green prickly shells of their fruit beginning to split and shed the conkors to the ground.  They are a child's delight, although I think that Health and Safety have now banned the playing of conkers on school grounds and mores the pity.  I cannot ever recall anyone being blinded or truly hurt by the playing of conkers, but then again, I might have lived too sheltered a life?  I don't know . . . 

 

Landeelou has a lovely fall printable collection available to grace your walls and mantles.  Tis the season for Thankfulness for our good harvests and many blessings.  I, in particular, am thankful for our Autumn Church Conference which will be broadcast at the end of this month.  I so love the feeling of togetherness and anticipation that attends it. It is nice to feel a part of something large and to hear our leaders speak to us.  I can't wait to hear what they have to say! 

 

This is definitely the season of orange . . .  mums and  crysanthemums abound in their bright coats, and sunflowers blaze . . . orange pumpkins and squashes lay ripening in the fields and all the corn is gathered in.  Over here they call wheat corn, which seemed quite odd to me when I first arrived, surely corn is corn after all . . .  but it's not, not here at any rate. What was always corn to me, is called sweet corn . . . . and corn is wheat.   

Down at the Manor she had a dedicated crysanthemum and dahlia garden.  The blooms were gorgeously magnificent.  Every colour under the sun . . .  but I confess I am partial to the reds and golds.  They sing the song of my autumn loving heart  . . . 

 

I think they are the most magnificent of flowers . . .  they don't just bloom . . .  they seem to burst, like fireworks . . . so beautiful  . . . 

  

Out come the cardigans and wool socks.  Warmer coats get aired and dry cleaned, we start thinking about putting the flannel sheets back onto the beds and filling the gas cannisters . . .  I want to get in more candles.  There is something so very comforting about a room lit by nothing but candles and lanterns . . .  fairy lights . . . flickering fires in the hearth and the smells attendant upon such things  . . . I bought apples the other day. Two bags . . .  I am craving applesauce and apple cake and . . .  apple pies and crumbles.  Todd saw them and his eyes lit up.  Could it be he suggested that an apple pie was in his future?  Dare he hope?  I said he might well do, although in all truth he has gone on and waxed so poetically through the years about the magnificence of his mother's apple pies that I do think mine could never ever hold a candle to them  . . . 

But that is no reason not to try.

I suppose

...

 

I love the colour of this nail varnish . . . its kind of a brownish, orangy red.  Cinnamon!  I think it is the colour of cinnamon and autumn is such a cinnamon coloured season.  I am going to look for some of this colour.  I hope that I can find it.  We have to go out today to pick up a few things and I am going to ask Todd to take me to Boots and see . . .  but I also saw the cutest little pumpkin votive holder on Instagram this morning that was calling to me.  I may need to go and look for one of those also  . . .   

Can you tell I am feeling it!

This autumn air is getting

into my soul!

 

This is the candle votive holder I saw, on The Pink Rose Fairy on Instagram.  You need to follow her.  How could you not follow someone with a name like that.  Everything cottagy  . . .  right up my cottage loving alley . . .  She got it at Homesense.  I don't think they have Homesense over here . . .  but I might be able to find something similar . . .  oh, I do dream on don't I?

and in the meantime, yesterday I made

a batch of Roasted Root Vegetable Soup.

and it was very,

very, good.

♥

Recipe to follow soon.

 

Its almost time to canoodle.   Warm lap robes.  Fire blazing.  Hot cocoa.  Sappy films.  I love this time of year.  I really do.  The light changes.  The evenings begin to draw in and we get to turn the lamps on . . . there is something very homey about having the lamps on  . . . you don't get the same feeling from having them on in July or August that you get from having them on in September . . . 

You really don't.

  

And yesterday as I was pottering about in the kitchen, I had the back door cracked open a little bit and I could hear the children from the elementary school down the way playing in the school yard.  Oh, there is something so lovely about listening to children at play.  It is such a cheerful sound.  When we were in Kent, we also had a school just down the hill from us that afforded me that beautiful sound each day during the school year.  I quite missed that song during the school holidays.

  I hope that I always live within the sound 

of school yard music

... 

I have fruit cakes on my mind  . . .  I think I need to bake one.  Todd really loves fruit cake and I have not made one in ever such a long time.  I won't make a Christmas one . . .  just a normal ordinary day kind of a fruit cake.  Maybe a boiled raisin cake. He will love that.  It might take his mind off of apple pies . . . 

 

Oh that I had those last pair of shoes . . . 

I don't have the kind of feet for those kinds of shoes now  . . .  my feet are stubby and swollen and flat and full of bunions and things.  I don't think that I have ever had pretty, want to show them to the world . . . feet.  That is probably one of the reasons I have never had a pedicure.  Don't want to show my feet to anyone.  But I would love that scarf . . . I think I need to get knitting, but first  . . . 

I have to sort the craft room.

Sigh.

...

Any voluteers?

hah!

  

I was talking on the telephone to my friend Tina yesterday and lamenting on how much I would love to be going on long walks this time of year.  Not in the wind and rain of course, but on an Indian Summer kind of a day.  I think that the next sunny day we have we are going to take ourselves up to the Horseshoe pass and have lunch . . .  just let the cobwebs be blown from my mind.  Take in the scenery of the Welsh Valleys below . . . just be together and away from here.  I cannot believe that we let the whole summer pass and went . . . . NO . . .  WHERE!  We had such plans, but not to worry.

Autumn is here and it is a time for

new beginnings

...

According to F Scott Fitzgerald that is!

and who am I to argue with 

a

literary genius!

 

The magic hour is chiming . . .

 

Its here and I'm wearing it and it's gorgeous.
I feel engaged all over again.
Its lovely.
For time and all eternity.
♥♥♥ 

A thought to carry with you through today  . . .  

.° * 。 • ˚ ˚ ˛ ˚ ˛ •
•。★★ 。* 。
° 。 ° ˛˚˛ * _Π_____*。*˚
˚ ˛ •˛•˚ */______/~＼。˚ ˚ ˛
˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
 *.˛.°Summer ends, and Autumn comes, 
and he who would have it otherwise 
would have high tide always and 
a full moon every night; and thus 
he would never know the rhythms 
that are at the heart of life. 
~Hal Borland  •。★★ 。* 。.° * 。 

Spiritual Enlightenment

 

In The English Kitchen today  . . .  Autumn Pork Chop Dinner.  Deliciously perfectly sized just for two people and in all truth you could downsize it to one, or upsize it for more.  Layers of cabbage, potato, green beans, topped with a chop and oven simmered in apple juice until tender, and then topped with buttered crumbs and browned.  What's not to like??

Have a blissfilled Wednesday!  Don't forget!

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And I do too!