Blogtober 2022 : Day 9

Did you see the moon last night?  It was a full moon, a big, beautiful Hunter’s moon, so called because of the time when hunters’ prey was more easily seen in the bare fields after harvest.  I don’t try to take photos of the moon any more because the camera on my phone never does it justice, but instead I went out into the garden in this morning’s sunshine to see what treasure I could find and I’ve taken photos of that instead.

Berries!  So many of them on (from the top) the Whitebeam tree, the Rowan tree and the Cotoneaster bush.  I’m sure I read somewhere once that birds have a preference for berry colours and that the red ones are top of the list, although the RSPB website says that most berries are red or black to make it easier for birds to see them.

Although the garden is getting ready for the Winter, there are still colours to be seen and I love going to see what I can find, tucked away behind leaves or deep in the borders.  That makes it feel like proper garden treasure!

The Weigela florida “Boston” is still flowering …

As are the roses on our standard “The Fairy” bush.  We’ve still got a couple on our climbing rose bushes too, and although it’s been pretty mild recently, it still feels like a treat to see them into October.

My first Schizostylis flower!  I think this plant has been renamed Hesperantha now so that there’s no risk of such a beautiful flower being called “Shi-tso-stylis” instead of “Shy-so-stylis” and I’ve admired them in other gardens for years but had no success in my own.  Not the sharpest of photos but I’m hoping this might not be the only flower I get this year and then I may have a better one to show you.

Not everything is red or pink in the garden though.  The Hydrangea has decided to be blue this year.  Yes, I know that Hydrangea are supposed to be blue or pink depending on the soil type and we have acid soil here so it should really be blue, but ours seems to pick and choose for itself and sometimes we even get the odd purple flower as if it can’t quite make up it’s mind!

We’ve got more apples this year than I’ve seen for a while, presumably because of the weather conditions earlier in the year.  I think these are Golden Delicious apples – we inherited the tree and it’s not always produced much worth eating but I might go back down the garden later and collect a few for a pie for Sunday dinner.  I know that Golden Delicious aren’t cooking apples but we do have a cooking apple tree as well that might have some fruit worth picking and now that the idea is in my head, it’s not going to go away.  I love apple pie!

Calendula flowers are brilliant – they just keep going!  I don’t think I’ve seen these pale yellow ones in the garden before this year but I plant so many Calendula seeds, taking them off the plants as the flowers turn to seed and throwing them into the borders, that there are probably all kinds of variations of them now.  This one looked so pretty next to the purple of the everlasting wallflower (Erysimum “Bowles’s Mauve”), and even more so because there were only green leaves around them so the colours seemed to stand out even more.

On the way back to the house, I passed our Hamamelis (Witch hazel) bushes.  Witch hazels are grown for the leaves, which turn stunning shades of red, green and yellow, and for the flowers which are peculiar-looking things but smell wonderful!  We’ve got two bushes, “Diane” and “Arnold Promise”.  “Diane” produces red flowers and the leave are just starting to turn …

There’s no sign of flowers yet but there are already out on the “Arnold Promise” bush …

I think they look a bit like little yellow spiders!  I loved the greens here in this photo – more shades than you might imagine once you stop to look at the leaves and the lichen.  Lovely!

Back into the house and I needed to get on with a job from yesterday … the lamp!

I like building IKEA furniture, and sometimes I even get the instructions the right way up 🙂

This lamp was an easy build … three legs to screw onto a base and then the lampshade holder part to insert into the base and screw into place.

Next, the lampshade had to be put together, and it was a nifty flatpack for that too – the circular frame clips onto the lamp shade and as you roll it along, the lampshade forms and is held together with a velcro strip.

IKEA have got their act together these days in terms of eco-friendly packaging.  Gone are the days of endless polystyrene pieces and lots of plastic wrapping.  This lamp was wrapped in paper, the screws were in a cardboard envelope and the box was about a small as it could be to hold everything safely.  Even the cable is woven and not plastic …

By the time I had finished and taken out the paper that could be used to start the fire, there was very little to go in the recycling, and that is definitely a result!

Here’s our new lamp, hopefully kit-cat proof!

I still don’t think the light will be good enough for knitting but at least it won’t look like a paper snowflake like the other did when it was turned on! 🙂

 

Thank you very much for all your comments on this month’s posts, I’m loving our conversations!  I’m also very glad that you’re still here, nine days in, and I’ve not bored the pants off you yet! 🙂

Thank you also to everyone who has followed me on Bloglovin since I mentioned it yesterday.  It really is a great way to find all kinds of blogs to read – creative lifestyle blogs like mine, tutorial blogs, craft blogs, fashion blogs, blogs on any subject you can think of!  You can add blogs that you read to the list too if they’re not already on there, and then other people can find them too.  I have definitely noticed a drop in the number of blogs that I have read over the years which are still regularly updated but it’s such a good way to remember what’s been going on in your life, especially if you remember that the original intention of a weblog (blog) was as an online journal.  I’ve always been a bit rubbish at keeping a diary (or journal) and they have always felt to me as if they’re something that should be kept secret and hidden in case anybody else read them which made me feel uncomfortable about writing them, but online blogging about the things that I do talk about has been an absolute joy, and is why I’m still doing it.  I’m still cleaning up the background code on my blog from when I moved over to WordPress last year and it’s meant going through every post to read through it – and I have thoroughly enjoyed the task.  I’ve been reminded of things my girls have said, of days out, of things that I have made, socks that I’ve knitted, of course, and so many other details of the last twelve years that would have been forgotten otherwise.  I guess what I’m saying here is that if you’ve ever been tempted to start a blog for yourself, then now is a really good time to do it!  🙂

This post has turned out to be longer than I expected and I still need to go and look for apples on the tree so I’ll say “see you tomorrow” and leave you to enjoy the rest of your Sunday! xx