Soggy Bottom: Autumn

Autumn has well and truly arrived and I'm LOVING it! I LOVE the colours, the crisp air, the cosy jumpers, the berries, the nuts. All in all I would be inclined to say that Autumn is my favourite time of the year, except I don't like the cold. In fact, I HATE being cold. Its great when you are cosy indoors and have nowhere to go, but when you have to go to work, go food shopping, get on with DAILY LIFE, then I struggle to find any joy in a dripping nose and numb fingers and toes.

Its at this time of year I remind myself daily of all the lovely things that Autumn and Winter bring, and take comfort in the fact that after Winter there's Spring and new hope for a warm Summer. I collect conkers and display them in a dish ...

lovely, arent they?

And I collect all the Philberts that fall from our nut tree and save them for Christmas and for making C nut and choc chip buns for his lunch box ...

And this year I've managed to get a bine or two of hops to decorate the kitchen

curtesy of our neighbour, Betty.

I've been freezing the hedgerow harvest of Blackberries too over the last few weeks. All finished now, but I've been offered a couple of pounds of Damsons as well, so my freezer will be full to bursting. I told C it wouldn't be big enough when we bought it, and with all this hedgerow foraging, I'm being proved right! I hope to be making jam in the very near future (that'll make some space) but must first make more Whisky Marmalade for His Nibs, as he's on the last jar of the previous batch. I cheat when making marmalade and use MaMade ready prepared oranges - there's no way I could stand there and peel and pith a pound or two of oranges. The end result is superb and I can highly recommend MaMade and their instructions. Soft fruits used for jam making are very easy, you just pop into the pan and heat, no peeling necessary.

The Sunday Roast today was finished off by a lovely Blackberry crumble ...