Seasons shifting

Thank you so much for your kind and thoughtful words about our dog Ziggy. It is getting easier all the time but we still miss him hugely. We have been making an effort to do some of the walks we associate with him, and to remember some of the lovely walks we had in the last couple of weeks before he died.

I took all those photos above at the end of October and beginning of November in the midst of a mild and sunny autumn. Two weeks later, and the weather has sharply turned wintry, with frosts and storms removing the last leaves from the trees. 

These photos remind me that I haven't been down to the beach since the summer. I always want to be in the woods in the autumn, but the beach on a sunny winter's day is spectacular.

Our recent weeks have been a mixture of work and home, of jobs and relaxing, Keeping busy has been helpful. Salvation came in the form of this jigsaw puzzle, the weekend after we lost Ziggy, when I couldn't really concentrate on anything. We cleaned the entire house from top to bottom, washed the cars inside and out, baked, anything. I did a jigsaw and listened to audiobooks.

It is from Happily Puzzles . I love their designs and have asked for another for Christmas. 

Reading has also been a great pleasure. The Clues in the Fjord is a murder mystery set in Iceland. I bought it for the location, and it did not disappoint. One of those novels where the landscape is so vivid, so well-described, that it almost becomes another character. 

I read The Ministry of Time for book group. It's a compelling, genre-crossing mixture of science fiction, history and romance. Very good.

However, the greatest comfort has come in the form of re-reading Jilly Cooper's Riders and Rivals. Absolute joyful escapism back into the 80s. I have been listening to them on Audible and they had been perfect for my current mood and need for distraction, but without anything too complicated.

I have cooked and cooked. Some of this was over half term, some more recently. 

I turned the redcurrants and blackcurrants, picked from the garden over the summer and frozen, into jam and jelly.

I made both redcurrant jam and jelly, just to see which I liked more, and also my two blackcurrant bushes yielded a whopping one and half jars of jam. 

I experienced my usual October/November obsession with pumpkin spice (I just googled it and found a recipe online) and used it in cookies and cakes. 

 

I made things I knew the kids would really love: Nigella's jam doughnut muffins and homemade oreos (chocolate biscuits sandwiched with buttercream).  Comfort cooking. 

I made crumble with blackberries from the freezer and cooked the pumpkins I bought for decoration weeks ago. They turned out well in a roasted then turned into soup flavoured with curry paste and coconut milk, and thickened with lentils. More comfort cooking. 

And I made a Christmas cake. Every year I go back and forth about baking one. Should I bother? It's only really me who eats it. But cooking and decorating it brings me so much pleasure, so I made one.

As the days get shorter I find myself retreating into the house more, watching the way the light moves differently around the rooms.

Changing the summery displays over for something more autumnal. 

I may have to add a bit of festive sparkle to this in a few weeks.

Pottering like this makes me feel so grounded and content.

We did some bigger jobs over half term. With the help of my wonderful, endlessly loving, helpful and patient parents, we decorated Bella's bedroom. It feels so grown up now. She chose a really nice colour (Lick Beige 02) and has styled it beautifully. 

We also gave the garage an almighty clear out. We took car loads of rubbish to the tip and charity shop, and gave it all a very thorough clean and tidy.

Tedious, dirty and dusty work, but we can now find things.

I did a lot of gardening. My mum helped my cut back my geraniums ready to go into the cold frame. Hopefully they will survive the winter there and I can replant them in the spring. 

I have changed the pots on the front step into something more wintry: cyclamen, ivy and (I think) silver dust.

Drinking a cup of tea outside after you've worked hard gardening is one of the best cups of tea. Second only to the first cup of the day.

We bought a silver birch from our local garden centre, for Ziggy. 

This robin watched over us the whole time. It was lovely.

And now we are approaching the end of November. The weather feels like winter lately, with hard frosts and beautiful sunrises. Unfortunately they always seem to occur on week days which is a shame as a heavy frost makes me want to go for a big walk in the countryside. It always seems to be wet at the weekend. We even had a flurry of snow last week, very unusual down here on the south coast, especially in November.

We have got out the warmest woolly blanket and are lighting the fire regularly.

Christmas looms ahead of us and I view it with a mixture of dread and anticipation. There is so much to do, to remember, to coordinate, to think about. The mental load is huge. But I am looking forward to it too: I have plans to see friends, family are coming to stay -  the calendar is pretty packed between now and Christmas day. There will be Christmas lights and markets and wreath-making and lunches out and all sorts of loveliness. 

Ziggy

We very recently lost our lovely whippet Ziggy. He was only seven and it was very unexpected.  It has been a horrible shock. As anyone who has lost a pet will know, the hole they leave in your lives is huge and it takes a while to get used to it. We miss the pitter-patter of his paws on the floor, the "thud" of him jumping off the bed upstairs when he heard a packet open, the way he always appeared whenever the coffee machine started up, eyeing the treat cupboard hopefully. We miss letting him out for a bedtime wee, standing outside, staring at the moon while waiting for him. We miss the way he would jump into our bed once he heard the alarm go off, knowing it was morning and "allowed", burying himself under the covers. We even miss the way he was hazardously underfoot during all food preparation, or how he'd sneak off his bed towards the end of a meal, hopefully resting his head on your thigh for a bit of leftover sausage. Bella always used to leave a little of the meat on her plate "for Ziggy". The sound of knives and forks being placed in the middle of a plate was his sign to start skulking under the table. We miss the routine of walking him, whether it was a short "pavement" walk locally or a longer stride through the countryside. The way, off the lead, he would linger behind sniffing then race on ahead of us. In short, we miss everything about having him in our lives. We were so lucky to share our home with him for so long: he brought us together as a family and made life better in so many ways. 

We have wonderful memories of him (and so many photos!) and have planned a few things to make us feel better. We are going to buy a silver birch tree and plant it where he always used to dig at the fence and bark at the neighbour's dog. We will print photos and display them around the house. We are walking his favourite walks and missing him but enjoying the walking. We still have his lead hanging on the hook by the front door. The house still feels horribly empty and quiet but being busy helps, as always.

Ziggy, you were the best dog.