It is autumnal around here today............

I forgot, during my relating of the garden woes of 2012, that my gem squash have thrived. More than thrived. I have a bumper harvest. This pleases me (and Glynis and Peter) hugely, as we are all great fans from our South African upbringing. See? There is always something to be thankful for. The butternuts are slowly emerging as well, so I have high hopes for them.

Yes, Vee - we have wonderful gardening programmes on TV. I love them. We were advised back in the days of water restrictions, to plant a garden for drought. So some did, and nothing grew because drought loving plants do not like rivers of the wet stuff day after day. And some, like me, planted things which I thought I could manage to control like the godetia, which grew 3ft, searching for the missing sun, instead of cascading gently over the edge of the pot in glorious abundance like last year. And then as soon as the flowers started opening - eventually - the long tall stalks keeled over and lay down like sticks. Sigh. The hanging baskets did the same. They failed to grow, never mind cascade.

My garden usually has a lot of cosmos in it. Some I grow from seed and plant out when bigger, and some grow in the ground from seeds which fell last autumn. Well. The ones which spring up in the garden have reached the dizzy height of about a foot and have one measly little flower on their very fragile stems, and the ones I grew from seed are 15ft tall and have only been flowering for the past month. And there you see the problem. It is all wonky. But that is the nature (hahaha) of gardening, isn't it - and the roses have been beautiful.

There is s distinct chill to the air this morning - it feels like Autumn. I love the autumn. In fact, I think I love all the seasons for wildly differing reasons. Autumn, though, with the shorter days and golden colours warms me. There is still a whole lot of cooking and freezing to do as the apples start piling up, and crumbles to dream about as I smell cinnamon and start planning slow cooker meals in my head. Gone are the cooler colours of summer which I had in the house, and now we have the oranges, the russets and the chocolate browns, and out have come the crocheted blankets and  little acorn people and if the sun happens to sine through the windows, it creates a glow. I love it.

 If I had the energy, I would go in search of Autumn with my camera. But it is now raining, so I will make do with some photos of the inside of my home.

I am amazed by how many orange or autumnal bits I have to play with. I have a basket out waiting for inspiration to strike and my mind is turning to crochet, sewing, quilts, scarves - cool weather pursuits. Books too. There are so many I want to read and all we lack around here is the ability to remember what we read in order to follow a plot. Maybe I should go and play with my Amazon basket again, and remember to include the things I need. Not want! Like printer ink, for goodness sake. I keep forgetting it. Amazon means books to me. I have no idea why I am talking about ink......

There is another pot of tomato/onion relish bubbling on the stove. The tomatoes had given up waiting and were about to decompose, so it had to be done. It reminds me of my grandmother. And 11 apples are off the tree too. Their neighbours had already started rotting, so it was time.

Coffee. I need coffee...........