Little Cotton Rabbits

acorns

Earlier in the week the postman brought me a wonderful package from Lilfishstudios containing a little present to myself to celebrate autumn.

It was so beautifully packaged in a vintage sewing pattern bound with twine, with a felted autumn leaf and owlish card as lovely little details.

Inside were pretty muslin bags topped with felt leaves and inside those a collection of gorgeous felted autumny acorns!

I've had my eye on these for a while and they are greatly admired by all here as you can see - I just hope the hodgers don't gobble them up!

baking time

Here in the UK it's national baking week (19th - 25th October). So I thought I'd share a link to my current favourite cake recipe - Dorset Apple Cake.

It's the perfect autumn cake made with fresh-from-the-tree apples (I'm very lucky that our neighbours share their apple harvest with us).

I like to add 1 heaped tablespoon of mixed spice (cinnamon, coriander seed, caraway, nutmeg, ginger and cloves) to the recipe which gives it a wonderful smell.

What's your favourite thing to bake?

autumn

I know I've gone on about it before but autumn really is my favourite time of year. I love the colours on the trees, the picking of blackberries, apples and chestnuts, the cold mornings and the bright crisp days.

I also love the first daytime lighting of the fire after the summer, then curling up with my knitting and just enjoying being peaceful.

Hope you have a peaceful, relaxing weekend where you are.

PS: I took the pictures to remind myself how nice the room looks when it's tidy - it doesn't often look like this I can tell you!

tidy up time

The last few days have been spent in the garden where everything is winding down. We've picked the last of the tomatoes, courgettes, raspberries and carrots and have lots of onions now in storage. There are a few beans still producing, a couple of potato bags left to dig up and the cabbages, kale and broccoli are still going strong. But it definitely feels like we're getting down to the last of the yummies our garden has to offer us for this year.

We've had a bumper crop of grapes this year - although we mostly leave them for the birds as they're not very sweet.

 

Now the garden is being tided and cleared ready for digging in some compost to get everything ready for next season and then a nice winter rest. The chickens have been helping me tidy up - they do a great job of breaking up the soil!

 

It's been lovely to watch them roaming around outside of their run which is possible once again now that Toby isn't spending so much time in the garden (a small boy who likes to put anything in his mouth and run around barefoot does not mix well with large quantities of chicken poo on the grass!)

 

caught in the act!

Toby has always had a sweet tooth but up to now has been more of a biscuit boy than a sweetie fiend. Last week however that all changed when he discovered Colin Caterpillars. He's been leading me to the cupboard all week and it doesn't matter how many times I move them - he always seems to suss out my hiding place! On Sunday I finally decided it was time to give him a PECs card for them so that he can add to his growing vocabulary (it also reinforces the concept of communication for him and using his latest desires is a great way of building on his communication skills). So there I was setting up my photo shoot and look who found me and made off with the props!

Now Toby has a proper way of asking for Colin Caterpillars and I have a cupboard full ready and waiting!