After a much warmer than usual summer, suddenly it’s
autumn. On the second-last morning of August for the first time this year we had condensation on the outside of the bedroom
windows – always a sign of the cooler weather kicking in. The fourth heatwave was a bit of an
anticlimax; one or two warm days, but then a chilly wind from the east cooled
things down considerably, and I did briefly consider putting on my winter
gardening jacket one afternoon. A few
showery days turned to more persistent rain, and this week is more wet than
not. It’s all good for the garden, which
desperately needs any rain it can get.
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Apple and plum trees |
The leaves of the plum tree are always the first to turn,
and it makes a striking contrast with the big apple tree next to it, with its
still-green leaves and huge fruit. The
early eating apples are much smaller but also plentiful (sadly, they aren’t
good keepers); several houses in the village are giving their fruit away as
there is so much.
Autumn and winter veg is starting to appear in the kitchen
garden: leeks, winter cabbage, radicchio, pak choi, hardy herbs, in addition to
the sprouting broccoli and kale that have been growing for several weeks now. There are still some French beans, and I
planted out a few little lettuce seedlings today, into a surprisingly warm soil, for a late crop. There’s a row of carrots and some beetroot
that need to be dealt with, and the courgettes are still limping along; and in
the greenhouse the tomato crop has been good.
We have set up a bird table near the summerhouse, and the
robin who lives down there has been enjoying having food put out for him (or
her). But it’s that time of year when
birdlife seems to go quiet; perhaps some of the residents are already starting
to migrate to warmer parts of the country or they’re moulting and staying in
hiding. A fatball put out a couple of
days ago has gone untouched, and there are now only two or three sparrows
coming to the patio for food whereas a couple of weeks ago we had nearly 20 at
a time. After two or three months away, Lefty
the lame woodpigeon returned the other day to poke around one of the
flowerbeds; we hope he’ll stay for the winter.
There are a few butterflies still about; a small copper was resting today on the winter savory.
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Small copper butterfly |