The Last Autumn Weekend

It's been so mild that last weekend we cleared the veg patch and planted more onions and garlic to over winter.  In clearing, I realised that considering we had decided to buy no new veg seeds for the garden, we did quite well this year.

The Herb patch

Green Tomatoes for chutney

Chillies

Tumbling Toms

Greengages - A revelation to me

Nigella has seeded all over the place from the Roydon Road garden

Apple Trees are not really ready to fruit yet, but give it a year or two

Another herb I'm encouraging to self seed all over the garden

Not grown by me, but I'll be planting a quince tree in the garden next year without fail.

And of course, what else does one do with all this bounty, but eat, eat...

So, I am very excited for next year, when we are officially getting stuck in on the garden.  I've already planted native bluebells and wild garlic along the fence by the river for the bees.   I've not included the bees in the list of this year's bounty - but then we didn't get any honey this year.  The chickens, have been great though, 4 eggs a day and I'd like to increase their number and add ducks and grouse or quail to our menagerie.

Much of the fruit we planted this year was left to get established so, there is some pruning to do before next year when I'm hoping we might get more of a harvest.  The tomatoes did well in the greenhouse, but not so well in the veg plot itself.  So, our old greenhouse from the allotment needs to go up for them next year.  With two greenhouses I'll be able to germinate and raise young plants whilst also allowing tomatoes, chillies and aubergines to thrive under glass.

And we also had a fabulous crop of potatoes this year.  We broke our rule and bought seed potatoes as they were to help us to turn the soil on the new plot.  They were quite neglected, so I am impressed with how well we've done, 4 sack loads.

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Autumn Crafts from Mrs Fox's

Yesterday I posted about this month's Halloween themed Mrs Fox's Crafty Box - our monthly kid's craft box scheme - and then, how exciting!  It's never happened so quickly before.  But, with subscribers and pre-orders, Mrs Fox's October Crafty Box sold out on it's first full day on sale.  The last one was snapped up almost as soon as I posted about it on Facebook.

So, I've offered to make up some more if there is enough interest by Sunday 20th.  There should still be time to order more materials, put together a couple of boxes and mail them out to arrive before 31st October.

We do so love our autumn crafts, below are some more great crafts inspired by the season:

Mrs Fox's Crafty Box for October contains loads of halloween crafts for children; black cats, witches hats, sweetie cone bats, halloween ghost and pumpkin print bunting and a paper Jack-O-Lantern with a flickering LED candle. £12+p&p.  Or buy a three month subscription which will carry your crafting fun right through the winter months. SOLD OUT

As our native wildlife goes into hibernation for the winter make these little woodland critters out of 100% recycled card designed and printed here in the UK, £7+p&p.

These hand-felted acorns, with real acorn cups, are made to order by Mrs Fox's, they can be made in a variety of colours.  £3 each, or sets of 3 for £8 +p&p.  Email us for details; info@mrsfoxs.com.

 Apple Needle Case Kit, inside this little craft kit is everything you need to make a felt needle case in the shape of an apple.  A lovely first sewing project.  It does contain a real needle however so it should not be given to children under the age of 7.  £6+p&p

Mrs Fox's felt leaf crowns are beautiful and unique, hand-made to order, they are available in our Folksy store and would make any little woodland elf happy.  £12 +p&p.

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Mrs Fox's October Crafty Box

Ideas for the October crafty box were not really difficult to come by - All Hallows' Eve is of course at the end of the month so black cats, bats and witches hats are the name of the game this month.  Our crafty little foxes will receive a spooky box filled with craft materials, ideas and instructions to make all these things along with halloween bunting and a paper Jack-O-Lantern with a little LED flickering candle.

Mrs Fox's Crafty Boxes - Kid's Halloween Craft Box available from 16 October 2013

If you would like to join our crafty fun this kid's craft box is available online for £12 +p&p or you can buy a three month subscription for £10.50 a box +p&p, which will take you through November and December and includes loads of great Christmas crafts for children.

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How Does Your Garden Grow - The garden's swan song

The last week has been BIG on pumpkins in the garden and the allotment.   Harvesting on the allotment; mostly potatoes, pumpkins, onions and beetroot.  There is spinach that will continue all through the winter, some leeks and onions, but, then that's it.

There was a surprise on the allotment.  I've no idea what this flower is, or where it has come from, it is in the scruff at the edge of the allotment.  Does anyone know what it is?

I have so enjoyed this linky, really, it is my favourite, and although I've not contributed every week I have read it every week.  So, a big "THANKS" to Mammasaurus for hosting, her beautiful photos, and my particular favourite 'Grandad's' beautiful veggie garden and all the other regulars whose gardens I have been inquisitively nosing around, "Thanks for sharing".  I am saying this as, with the weather proper cold this morning on the school run, I know there will be less and less to photograph in my garden and on the allotment.

We've been tidying and putting the garden to bed, cutting back our vine and roses.  Little Louis Fox took this shot of a rose on the weekend as we took the final blooms inside.

There are a few little flowers, like these cyclamen, still poking through in the slightly more sheltered areas of the garden.  I need to tidy my plants in pots into these sheltered corners, if they are going to survive the winter.

I really don't want to sound melancholy as I actually love the autumn.  The last foraging of blackberries.  Autumn walks with the dogs and children chasing leaves.  The colours of autumn.  Little Una Fox's veg art, that we are not allowed to move until she has taken 100 pictures.

One thing I really enjoy is preserving the last of the bounty from the garden. We make chutney, jam, pontack sauce, sloe and damson gin, freeze apples, blackberries, black currents and damsons, my kitchen is even more of a permanent mess than usual:

The last tomatoes ripening on the window sill, waiting to be turned into green tomato chutney.  The last, too far gone, blemished skinned, red tomatoes I roast with peppers, olive oil and chillis and make into my spicy passata.   I use it in chilli which we eat with corn muffins.  A friend with family in the US buys me Jiffy corn muffin mix.  It's the cheapest stuff going, probably not very wholesome, but I got a taste for it when I lived in the states.  It's great with really spicy slow cooked chilli.  And on that note I have made myself so hungry I have to go eat.

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Autumn Leaf Crowns

Now that Autumn is here my walks in the morning have that extra acoustic quality - crunch, crunch, crunch...

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day

                                      by Emily Bronte 

And while Emily wrote poetry to while away her autumn, I make felt leaf crowns.

Mrs Fox's sells the crowns on Folksy for £12.  They are made to order, so the colours are ever changing and every one is unique.  Each felt leaf is hand cut and stitched.  Reinforced with webbing so they stand nice and straight.  Tiny seed beads adorn the stem of the leaf as it joins to the headband.

I rather love these crowns, secretly I prefer them to the flower headbands that we also make - but, shhhh, don't tell anyone.

Mrs Fox's Felt Leaf Crowns - £12 +p&p on Folksy

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Welcoming the Autumn

It's arrived hasn't it?  It's well and truly here.  Our front garden is littered with the leaves from our lime tree.  We squelch through the moulded grapes and decaying brown vine leaves in the garden.  The remaining tomatoes, still green on the vine, are heading for my chutney pan at this rate.  A few are still ripening on the window sill but...  It's Autumn isn't it?

I don't want to sound down about this because I love autumn.  Those first hazzy mornings are lovely.  The freshness in the air on our dog walks up on the fields makes you breath in deeply and thank your lucky stars for living here.  It's beautiful.  And as all around you dies, or falls asleep, it makes you glad to be alive.  I love autumn colours; the low golden light; the last blackberries.   There are things that you see more sharply in the autumn; like the mushrooms that appear all over the woodland and how rich and green the moss looks when all around starts to turn brown.

This Autumn is a little bittersweet for me as Little Louis Fox has started school full-time.  I am so happy for him, and he is already settling in with his new teacher and happy to be with so many friends that he already knows from nursery.  I am not going to be one of those mother's who feels redundant now that both my children are in school, makes jokes about "having another one..." and starts manically re-decorating.  But I do miss him.  I really do.

And, as our ceiling fell down in the back room last month there is a certain amount of re-decorating going on Chez Fox. Hee, hee!

Now they are both in school full-time it makes the weekends all the more special.  We are all together and meals are noisy and messy, and we visit and host our friends; the devastation that ensues is no better or worse than before but the clean up on Monday is a little more lonely.  (Yes I do indeed leave my housework until Monday morning!)

Last weekend we went for a walk in the woods, to one of my favourite places; Trent Park in Enfield, where I used to go with my parents, aunts and cousins when I was growing up.  The children had a great time building a bivy and we were hard pressed to coax them out of it, even after a good hour of mucky play.

And that's what is wonderful about autumn isn't it.  Before you get a chance to be tired of the chill, and the wet, and the mud, there is autumn.  All the positives of the chill - big warm coats, wet - wellies, yay! and mud - erm... (you'll have to ask the little foxes exactly what the positive of that one is) are here to be enjoyed.  

So, welcome autumn, nice to see you too, xxx.

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