We are blessed with a late spurt of good weather and so far October has mostly been lovely - cool overnight, but no frosts just yet, and the days dry and sunny, and not too hot. The sun is good as it bakes the stones of the house, which acts like a storage heater, and means that we aren't using the point heaters much and aren't too worried that we haven't seen the chimney sweep yet (he comes on Wednesday). We daren't light the fire until he has done his thing in case. We did have a small chimney fire many years ago and it scared us witless!! The conditions mean that we do get some very good sunsets, like this one.
Fruitfulness continues, with some late figs, more walnuts and lots more chestnuts. I also cut the 7 butternuts and put them on a chair to do their final ripening, before bringing them home on Tuesday, after which the weather is due to get wet. I made up a nice chestnut crumble recipe during the week and will try it out again tonight to refine it a smidge before writing it into my big Black Book of My Recipes. The base is red peppers and leek, to which I'm going to add a bit of garlic, and the crumble is chestnuts, butter and cheese.
Once the butternuts come home, there aren't many crops left at the Garden. We do have a number of Mooli radishes, and tried one today. One makes a nice side salad for two as part of a light lunch - it is very crunchy and has a little bit of a kick. Still no major mushroom discoveries although there was a dodgy bolete in the Garden - a birch bolete probably as it was by the birch tree. The cracks on the cap are testimony to the dry conditions. Once the rain starts next week, they could be popping up all over the place!
As the days get shorter, I return to my indoor orchid obsession. But I have a problem. One of the DIY stores in town buys large quantities of ornamental orchids and sells them for a certain price (a bit too elevated for me). They probably over buy and they don't necessarily look after them too well, so after a while the orchids lose their flowers and look sad, at which point they get sold off half price and without their cachepot. Then I go in looking for chicken feed, have to go past the orchid pen, and if I have an excess of cash, generally can't help myself as they are a bargain, aren't they? So while last winter I mithered over my two tiny orchids, now I have three tiny orchids, and five strapping ones (one is a refugee from Chinon). And I don't have that much space suitable for orchids.
You've not had a cat photo for a while I'm thinking and actually what better picture for autumn than a totally relaxed cat? Nibbles is pretty well stone deaf now, so I can get nice and close to take candid photos of her, like this!
Until next week!
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