It's Here & We're Happy With It

I've been avoiding thoughts of Autumn for a while now because that means winter and being fffffrreeezzing will come quickly after it. I now feel fairly content to give the summer up because there's so many new things to celebrate and prepare for. 

There will be Apple Festivals, followed by Halloween and then Bonfire Night. We'll hopefully have the new knits I'm busy clacking away on to wear too. 

Alongside all this are the apples we've harvested to make pies, cakes and the like; the sloe gin which is nicely fermenting ready to be sipped in December and the chillies slowly drying for all the spicy soups and chillies we'll need to warm our tums and tongues.

I've also been collecting a few books to add to the huge pile already by my bed to snuggle by the fire with. Throughout the summer I just couldn't stick with any of the books I started. This was really odd for me as I've always lost myself in a book. Being an only child with all grown-up cousins it was where I escaped to have adventures and get lost in other worlds. 

I read everywhere we went quietly snuggled in the back of the car. My dad forgot about me one day because of this habit. I was seven and the pair of us had just visited his boatyard for something or other. We had to wait for the train that ran at the bottom of the hill so I asked if I could stand on the bridge and watch it come. I put my book down and ran to the bridge. Dad stayed in the car smoking his cigar and listening to the radio. Once the train had gone, the gates lifted and dad started to drive up the hill. I thought he was teasing me at first, then I got worried and ran up the hill waving at the back of the car. When he got to the top and turned left, I burst into tears. I went to the garage as I'd seen my dad talking to the man who owned it and just waited. Dad came back, after having driven nearly all the way home. He'd spoken to the me and when I didn't answer he got the shock of his life. He thought I might have fallen out of the car, having completely forgotten I ever got out to look at the train. A long old drive back for him I should imagine. 

Books have always been figured largely in my world. After three years of a Literature degree I really fancied taking an MA in Myths and Fairytales. Instead I took a post-grad course to become a lecturer thinking I might inspire others to enjoy literature as much too. Getting all academic with books meant I found it hard to read without a pencil to annotate it. In the end I waded through daft books like Joanna Trollope to fix me of this problem. Now I always alternate reading a book that will make me think with one that I'll just enjoy whizzing through. 

Maggie O'Farrell is always a writer that I can get straight into. After I read the fabulous The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox I was hooked by her narrative style and the characters she creates. Instructions for a Heatwave has grabbed me straight away and funnily enough is set in that same incredibly hot, blue skied summer when my dad left me at the train tracks. I like how things come full circle. It just feels right somehow. 

The nights are now drawing in too quickly, but we're getting fabulous sunsets to make up for it.  

It also means it's the season of ill days off school. Little Bun was wiped out yesterday, planned well as it was my day off thank goodness. I hate when I have to say struggle on, I've got to work. She had the pleasure of hearing the dentist drilling away at my teeth every time the door opened which worried her a bit. 

 Just over the road from the dentists is a house where a lady sells bright bright flowers. I couldn't believe my luck when I saw she still had lots of stunning dahlia's to choose from. These will probably be the last until next year I guess.

 

Flowers chosen, we decided to pop off for a spot of shopping and browsing nearby. In Vintage Mischief we found a mini mixing bowl to match my Nan's larger one that my mum still uses and the brightest reddest suitcase.

The suitcase was the same price as some fabulous 1930's floral fabric and a lovely 1960s' yellow sheet. I was trying to be good, so it had to be one or the other. I opted for the suitcase as I reckoned I have tons of fabric and I've never ever seen a red suitcase before. Except on the lovely blog of the same name I guess.
 I need more and more colour pops when the seasons change to keep me sane. I'm still thinking about that fabric mind you and wishing I had more spare pennies this month.

 Now we're on the round of autumn birthdays aswell. Little Bun has been to two parties this week. One a tea party for a boy from her primary school and another for a new friend at high school. I sat up until late last night stitching this wee elephant key chain as her new friend is key ring mad.

I hope she likes as we wanted to keep it for ourselves.