Monday...

Last week I got a bit caught up with sending out masses of my calendars...it was one of those things I thought would take a whole day, and which actually took nearly a whole week!

The other thing I’m currently working on at the moment is my new blog...

I’m moving everything over to Wordpress, and weirdly I’m actually quite enjoying the re-categorising and organising of posts and images...it feels a bit like re-decorating the house...

The blog ( which is www.5ftinf.com ) may well be ready by sometime this week, although it is already live...just not quite finished/re-decorated, so this is just a little heads up that things will be changing a bit and hopefully you’ll be able to all shift over with me...

The temperature has definitely changed over the last week. 

The seasons are gently moving; cranberries are appearing at the grocers, I lit a fire for the first time this season and I’ve worn gloves twice...

I thought it would be a great idea to roast the giant chestnuts I’d bought from the green grocers, but unfortunately I forgot to cut them, and they loudly exploded over the fire guard, narrowly missing the cat!

I did manage to scrape a bit of the soft chestnut, which was left, out of the shell, and sprinkle it with salt, so at least I got a small taste of the Winter to come...which is probably all I want just at the moment!

Wednesday...

One of the best things about Autumn, apart from the amazing colours, is the change of light...

I usually take my blog pictures in the morning as it feels so immediate, but yesterday afternoon was a perfect example of the Autumn light I love...

...the Virginia Creeper being the best background of the moment...

( I picked one of the Sedums a couple of weeks ago, so that I can root it in this jam jar and spread them around the garden next year...)

...and this will be my Christmas tree this year

Amazingly the dahlia is still going...it's had 4 flowers compared to last year's one...

...although the spider's webs are kind of preventing me from getting too close!

I'm starting to harvest some nasturtium seeds too, although the more flowers I pick, the longer they flower...

The Montbretia seeds are also bursting open...

...and although the creeper is magnificent, there will be loads of tidying and bonfires over the next few weeks!

Monday...collecting seeds

Although the garden has started to close down in preparation for Winter, it is also being incredibly productive with seeds...

So I've spent a little time harvesting...

Hollyhocks...

Love-in-a-Mist...

Sweet Peas...

( first time I've ever collected these...not many, but hopefully they'll produce more  plants next year...)

( not my washing! )

and Giant Echium...

It's funny how the most giant and tropical plant in the garden ( standing about 12ft high ) has the tiniest seeds...which are not easy to collect with it's almost invisible prickles everywhere...

...but it's these seeds which all my neighbours want...

...and it's these seeds I reckon I'll be bagging up until November!

Monday...with a mystery nut

This morning I went on a walk in the woods with Emma who writes the A Quiet Style blog, and who also lives in Brighton...

We didn’t take many photos at all, although it was part and parcel to collect leaves, sticks and berries...and then we saw this tree and some of its fallen fruit...

Neither of us knew what it was, although the fruit hung in a similar way to a horse chestnut...

...but obviously wasn’t one.

I thought it may be an almond...

so I cut one open when I got home to try and find some sort of clue...

I still couldn’t work it out:

The nut case looked a bit like a walnut, but the leaves didn’t match.

I compared a walnut I’d brought home from Italy but to no avail.

The nut inside looked a little like an almond but again the leaves didn’t match.

The leaves definitely looked like nut leaves, but I searched through books and the web and just couldn’t identify it...

My neighbour popped round with some pears and also became intrigued so has taken pictures and a leaf away, so he can have a look through his giant tree book!

But if anyone out there knows what it is, please, please let me know!

We also came across some Yew.

I have held a lifelong fear of yew ever since my mother told me in about 1978, that it was deadly poisonous, then reading an article out loud from the local paper which told us about a boy who had fatally eaten the berries.

I always used to hold my breath under yew trees, in case a berry accidentally fell in...and I accidentally swallowed it!

I also picked up some tiny apples and hawthorn berries, as well as a feather for luck!