Autumn

Autumn leaves to me are like fast motor cars to Toad from Wind in the Willows. I just LOVE them!! The vibrancy and variety of the colours is astonishing . . . Nature really does rock . .  We mere humans stay one colour all year round ( unless you are fortunate enough to find some summer sun and then we look slightly burnt around the edges). So when the leaves fell  thick and fast in my parents garden this year, I just couldn't help but go and play  . . . I mean help sweep them up.

Simply messing about with leaves, above leaves from 3 beautiful old cooking apple trees and below . . . Beech leaves, a rich copper colour . . . from the neighbours garden (humph).

Having grown up surrounded by women who love nature and horticulture, it seemed only natural that I too would catch the gardening bug . . . and I really have, but not just gardening for pleasure but for food too. Organic, home-grown produce really is the best fresh food that you are likely to eat. . .  Every flavour is full, sweet and wholesome. The best comparison you could ever make would be between the perfectly formed tomato from the supermarket ,and the homegrown organically cared for tomato. Yes the homegrown is slightly knobbly in shape but that earthy flavour is there, with a beautiful texture . . Mr Tesco's tomato is a hard as a rock, usually unripe and tastes as flavoursome as water!! 

Autumn to me isn't just about a blaze of colour but also about foraging  . . . For as long as I can remember I have always gone blackberrying with my mother and often grandmother in tow. It became a yearly ritual amongst the woman in the family. Spending several hours on the way home, standing in nettle patches in your school uniform, trying with all your might to reach the juicy berries near the top of the bush without toppling over into the ditch below . . . well its become second nature now and its an experience I hope to share with my own children one day. Even picking the apples in the garden still gives me that excited feeling of harvesting something you have either found or grown yourself.  There is something quite elegant about the way an apple hangs in the orchard. . . one can see why Eve was tempted to the tree.