Autumn Joys

It’s already October! Michaelmas has passed and autumn is starting to become fully fledged here, with cooler days, coloured leaves dancing in the breeze, shiny conkers on the ground and jewel like berries in every hedgerow. What a rich pallette of colour this time of year bestows on us – it really is a feast for the eyes 🙂

I do so love autumn – it feels so bountiful, so generous, so full of goodness.

We have been enjoying our weekend walks in the surrounding countryside and have been richly rewarded with more rosehips to dry, acorns galore and horse chestnuts to crunch underfoot to reveal gleaming conkers.

We have been gathering leaves to dry and use for various activities, including our favourite beeswax leaf dipping. 🙂

I just press them between the pages of old cookbooks.

On the subject of outings, my husband and I have made a pact to start dating again! We can’t get babysitters in the evenings as our daughters don’t feel comfortable with the idea and besides they don’t go to sleep until 9pm, by which time we are too tired to have a good time out anyway! So now we are sneaking away on fortnightly “adventures” during school/working hours. It feels so good!  It is so easy not to prioritise this time together and we have been guilty of that in the past, but we have realised as the children are getting older, we are getting less and less time to ourselves in the evening and in general, so we need to make the effort. So far we have been on a couple of hikes in the countryside which has been fun and good to chat and explore new areas.

My husband is going to take charge of our next date, so let’s see what that brings 🙂

We celebrated Michaelmas on Friday 29th September. At home we enjoyed baking “Dragon bread”

and my daughters dressed up in red for school as is the tradition. In the evening they did a little show for me, singing all the songs that they know ending with lots of enthusiastic shouting of “Michael the Victorious”. T’was fun! 🙂

:Firmly on the Earth I stand.

Michael’s sword within my hand.

When I conquer fear, the dragon’s chains I tightly bind!

Michael’s light is in my mind.

Last year I wrote a long post about Michaelmas and why and how we celebrate it. Our traditions are very similar year on year with the same Nature Table set up and mood, so I won’t risk repeating myself here (!) but here are some Michaelmas daisies from our front garden because you can never tire of their beauty at this time of year 🙂

Whilst my daughters worked to beautify and tidy their school, I did some tidying up in the garden and around the house. We are still picking small tubs full of fruit and vegetables every couple of days which is pleasing and the strawberries have decided to fruit again!!

As it was quite mild at the weekend, we sat out in the garden in the evening and had an impromptu bbq by candlelight, which was a lovely 🙂

The spontaneous times are the most memorable, I find.

As for crafts, I have been making steady progress on the pullover I am making for my eldest, fitting in some knitting here and there.

I only need to finish the garter stitch border and that will be one birthday present completed. Hurrah!

I am working on my second Wurm hat. I am not sure if it will be for me or my youngest yet. She has her eye on it, although she has decided she would prefer light purple to be the dominant colour. Let’s see…

Apart from knitting, I have finally finished our dining room cushions:

I backed the front with felt as I couldn’t find any other batting in town. I quilted in straight lines round the whole cushion at approx 1.5 cm intervals, as the cushion needs to be durable since we are sitting on it. I also did a simple envelope opening at  the back using fabric I already had. I have to say they are such an upgrade to what we had previously!

I also finally got around to making the crotchet granny squares I made last summer into cushions!!!! I was using them on the arms of the sofa as a colourful addition, hoping one day to get around to making them into cushions. I don’t know what took me so long!?! Luckily as I was already in the swing of making cushions, I just got on with it and it didn’t take much time at all. I backed them with soft fleecy fabric with an envelope opening (as usual!). It’s so satisfying to finish a long lingering project!!

My daughters have started making large conker webs in beautiful colours chosen from the big basket of scrap yarn that I am using for my long-term scrap blanket project.

They are so cheery and will look beautiful pinned up on the wall once they are completed. We aim for cosy and colourful here 🙂

I hope autumn is treating you well and you are enjoying some cosy crafting time.

Sharing at Frontier Dreams Crafting On