Lovely Autumnal Morning...

This is the lovely misty morning we awoke to today, its the view from the steps to our house, looking right across the valley. Sadly we also awoke to the sound of chainsaws, the loggers have moved into my view, they are hard at work across the valley from the house, luckily not directly in our view but a tad to the side, still it will change the landscape for us for a while, thats not too bad a thing , it is always varied here, the loggers chop one bit, then by spring its green and glossy again, it makes the colours much more vibrant for us, so many different greens.. luckily for us, the main bulk of our bottom valley is oaks and holm oaks and rough shrub so its of no interest to the loggers so its pretty safe... I hope! We also have a pretty good stream down there which inhibits their trucks and wagons..

Last night was distinctly cooler than we've been used to, it seems autumn is creeping up on us, Im about ready for it really, thats the joy of being here and the hot hot summers, it makes you really enjoy the autumn when it comes, the cooler weather is really appreciated, mind you, I like all the seasons since we came here, the winter is good too, I look forward to the cold wet days so I can snuggle up by the kitchen range and read and not feel guilty for not working... I also enjoy the more relaxed days of winter when we have less work to do and I can spend time baking and cooking and making the house smell fragrant... theres nothing better on a cold wet day than coming in to a warm kitchen to the smell of baking ...

To make sure we can do that we have to work epecially hard now to accumulate the vast amount of wood we'll need. Somehow this year we just cannot seem to find the time to get more in...

Im still harvesting tomatoes... we actually stopped watering them as most were finished and I picked all of them... but .... they keep coming. I have some jars left so I'll make a final (I hope) batch of pasta sauce later this week. I still have at least two more chutney days to do, and then I hope to be finished with the preserves for this year. The shelves are groaning...
Last night I spent time threading all my chillis left over from making chilli pastes, onto cotton to hang above the range to dry, and then spent the rest of the evening scrubbing my hands trying to remove the 'hot' from them, it lasted through doing the dishes, and having a bath....
'note to myself for next time' ... wear bloody gloves!! 

We planted the 30 cabbage plants we had, and half a packet of swedes, so hopefully they will all take off now. The caulis are still looking good and  healthy but dont seem to be hearting up... I have still got high hopes of them... generally you can tell how big the heads will be by the size of the leaves... well mine will be massive... if they ever come!! I'll be soooo dissapointed if they dont!

We are madly trying to tidy the house a little as my brother in law John arrives on the 30th for two weeks, not that he's bothered about it, but we like to make at least a little effort, and Rik likes to show any work we've accomplished since his last visit...

We've also got two nice helpers coming in mid Oct and Im looking for more too ...