October: pumpkins and baking

Some of the more interesting things I did in October:

Finished my cotton crochet top. Intended as a summer top, I have worn it lots this autumn over a long sleeved t-shirt or denim shirt. It's loose, versatile and easy to wear.

I sorted and aired all my knitwear in anticipation of colder weather. I examined my crocheted jumpers (the orange one, the yellow one, the cream one) and looked at which I wore the most (the orange one, because it's lighter weight). Then ordered lots of yarn in different colours to make this jumper which I think will be one I wear a lot. 

I discovered the baking blog Jane's Patisserie and baked these incredible cookies: ginger and white chocolate. I am not normally a fan of a dark or milk chocolate chip cookie - I prefer oatmeal and raisin or white chocolate cranberry - and I love anything with ginger so these were amazing. I did slightly reduce the cookie size though, so that they might last a bit longer in the tin and not be eaten in one day.

I had another go at a pumpkin-shaped sourdough loaf and was really pleased with how this one came out. All you do is tie four lengths of string around the dough before putting it in the oven. Next time I might try adding a little pumpkin to the dough, and maybe some spices. I don't vary the flavourings of my sourdough loaves - I like the sourdough flavour as it is - but it might be fun to try something different. 

I love butternut squash and cook with it year round, but I do like it when all the other squash varieties start appearing in the supermarkets in the autumn. I like to roast squash until it's really caramelised around the edges and sweet, then add it into soups, salads, curries etc. 

Quite often I mix it with a grain and other vegetables and eat it as a warm salad. This one is roasted squash with cherry tomatoes - added half way through the cooking time - bulgur wheat, pine nuts, feta and some chopped herbs. It's nicest warm but still good cold. I make loads and then put it in the fridge in individual containers ready for my lunches at school during the week. 

More interesting squash varieties are currently scattered around the house. They will become soup next weekend I think. 

I have been working away on my Stitch a Day sampler for October, really enjoying all those warm golden and orange colours. 

And there are the walks. So often I struggle to find the time but always feel better for being out in the fresh air, even if it's just for an hour. We've had blustery beach walks, humid and overcast forest walks and rainy pavement ones in between. The weather has yet to turn really cool here, and it has been a pretty mild October so far. I think we've lit the fire twice and only put the heating on a handful of times. 

We've had a good half term overall, the highlights being a trip to London (more on that later) and the lows that both John and I have had really horrible head colds, the kind that linger and leave you feeling really wiped out. Over half term too, typical. But lots of pottering and reading has helped and I'm feeling a lot better which is just as well as it's back to work tomorrow.

A Stitch A Day: September

 

I almost forgot to show you September's A Stitch a Day embroidery. I am moving towards the months I was most looking forward to sewing (October and December) and loving it more with each month. If I am honest, it was a challenge to keep up with in during September, but I am glad I did because it does force me to stop and sit down for half an hour, either at the weekend or in the evening. It also makes me think about the seasons and what I like about them, what I want to remember.

September brought:

• seed heads in the hedgerows
• lanyard (first day at work)
• elderberries
• echinacea, growing in the garden
• wheat in the fields
• 6 (for Year 6)
• pencil
• rosehips
• cobweb
• fern turning from green to brown
• mushroom
• axe (chopping wood)
• cooking apples
• embroidery silk
• beech leaf

• conker
• match
• apple crumble#
• caterpillar
• wrap
• first episode of Great British Bake Off
• harvest moon
• dried hydrangea head
• feather
• log
• birch leaf
• ash leaf
• dried allium head
• fox
• bowl of porridge

October: pink walls and autumn light

October, so far. There have been beautiful sunrises at the back of the house - something to look at as I blearily fill the kettle at 6am - and sunsets at the front. Long shadows that stretch across the rooms and sharp sunlight that falls in different places, illuminating objects and corners. There have been bags of conkers collected on walks and scattered around the house in bowls and, optimistically, along the bathroom window to deter the spiders. Dried allium heads and hydrangeas have been cut and brought inside and arranged in vases and pots.

There have been many walks, long and short, in the fading green of the countryside with lengthening shadows accompanying us in the early evening.

We made the most of the last warm, dry weekend and had people round for pizza. We talked about buying a fire pit so that we could sit outside more in the autumn, maybe have people round for bonfire night. 

The kitchen has produced salted caramel cheesecake, many loaves of sourdough and the usual lunchbox/after school staples of chocolate banana bread, flapjacks and tea loaf. The fig tree in the garden produced a couple of delicious, jammy figs. 

We painted the bathroom pink (Hellebore by Little Greene Paint Company). We painted the walls and ceiling and it makes such a difference to a north-east facing room

It feels so much warmer. 

There was enough leftover to paint the alcove behind the wood burning stove. Eventually, I would like to tile this alcove, but the paint looks nice there for now.

Incredibly, a week and a half into October, there are still dahlias growing in the garden, along with sedum and wallflowers and geraniums. Over half term, I am going to move one of the fig trees and some of the dahlias I grew this spring into the new flower bed we created where the old shed used to be. It needs to be filled with plants before nature fills it with weeds. 

Two weeks to go until half term, and my head is filled with pumpkins and squashes: roasted for salads and risottos and soups, boiled for pancakes and pie and this recipe which I really want to try. It's still mild - we have only switched the heating on a couple of times - but I am looking forward to the first fire. I love October.