Autumn is truly here...

I feel like i need to write a catch up post as i have so many photos to share and haven't been able to visit this space in a while. I was feeling a little deflated for the first half of this week but now some enthusiasm and excitement is returning as me and D are going to Cornwall on Saturday insha'Allah! We are going to spend a week at my dads house (he lives there) and i think im looking forward to the charity shops, the fresh windy seaside air, the open natural views and the fun and laughter that will most likely exude from D. It will be a great opportunity for him to bond with his grandparents.

The weather has certainly become truly Autumnal this week, i really love it. I wore my winter coat for the first time in this half of the year yesterday and we also had gloves on our fingers and a winter hat on D's head. 

The trees still have plenty of leaves left to shed but they are looking browner and the branches are definitely more bare than in the Summer. This morning i looked out across the garden to see that there was lots of cold condensation on the inside of our greenhouse and wet dew on the grass and it looked cold out there again. We had our central heating on for most of today, another first since last Winter.

Tomorrow i shall be doing the last bits of laundry, ironing, packing our suitcase, cleaning the house and trying to get into bed early in preparation for the long day of travelling on Saturday. So i may not be back in this space for another week and a half insha'Allah.

What are you doing in the next few days?

(All photos are from our trip to Brocks Hill at the start of this month. You can read my other Brocks Hill posts here, here, and here,)

Embroidery...

Ive had an idea in my head for a while of an embroidered picture that i wanted to stitch, so i decided to make one for my blogging friend Sara. You may remember that Sara sent me a hand made heart wall hanging which is displayed on my dining room wall. It felt so good to receive a gift through the post from her and i really wanted to return the feeling.

Its been a while since i embroidered anything and i will admit that it took me a while to start the picture in the worry that it wouldn't be good enough. And although i did not try any new stitches, i think in the end it turned out alright and was a sweet little picture. I really cant wait to make more of them.

I added the blue Bible as Sara made herself a denim cover for her own Bible with a heart motif on it.

I also sent Sara some bits which i found tucked into various old books, bibles and an autograph / note book. I recently bought a few boxes of old books (i sell vintage collectibles online) and after a very enjoyable rummage and flick through them all i found so many special and charming newspaper cuttings, old postcards and vintage advertisements. And of course i kept many of the books for myself too, some are definitely worthy of their own blog post.

These are all the ones i sent to Sara, i need to have a think as to what i can make with the rest that i kept.

I especially love the little blue tit picture. The illustration is very sweet and charming.

And insha'Allah the quotation is true.

xx

Bugs...

One of the highlights of this Summer for me is the time ive spent with D doing all of the fun and interesting things that i probably wouldn't have done without him. I think perhaps my favourite thing (or one of them) about motherhood is being able to share my passions with someone who is just as fascinated, amazed and easily pleased as me, and to be able to express my joy at such things freely without worrying that he will think im odd or silly. Nobody else will organise bookcases (every couple of months), rummage through button tins, pose for photographs a million times over, set up little still life displays or get up close with bugs with me, but D does, and will, and enjoys just as much as me, all of those things. There is, for now, unconditional acceptance of all of my habits and hobbies, and that gives me such a wonderful feeling, inspiring me to fulfill more of my dreams and make me feel free and at ease with who i am.

So this summer, we have been totally enthralled by the creatures we have come across in our garden and i have seen bugs up close like never before...

The raspberry bush was covered with aphids and black fly, all of them in one still, huddled group.

We have seen plenty of ladybirds and they are still visiting our garden right now. We saw them when they were new to the world and not yet resembling their adult form...

And we noticed them stuck to leaves undergoing transformation to the next stage of their development...

And of course we have seen, held and admired them in their familiar red polka dot jackets...

We followed and videoed bumble bees, and let them walk across our fingers and up our arms...

And were amazed and delighted to hear and then catch a grasshopper with only one jumping leg, who stayed with us for ages as we passed him from finger to hand to log and then back into the grass for him to hop once more...

There were tiny caterpillars in our nasturtiums and naughty ones in our apples, but mostly these small but squishy bright green ones...

So many snails with Gods artistry perfectly displayed on each shell, so many variations of this humble mollusc within my small outdoor space, we cant get enough of them and the thought of salt or the stamp of a boot horrifies me!...

We saw this beautiful green and pink spider (and my mum told me she saw one just the day before i took these photos too) which i have never seen before. It was on our compost bin so i scooped it onto a fallen leaf from our cherry tree and marvelled at their likeness to each other. Its called an enoplognatha ovata, and just look at the tiny hairs on the leaf...

Another new to me bug is the shield bug, which i have grown to love oh so much! They come in different colours and are so hardy and prehistoric looking, they are something which i never would have thought we would have in England...

We collect worms at some point every week, some we feed to our brave robin(s) and others we put back after we have finished taking them on the swing or pushing them around the garden on the bicycle. Our compost bin must be home to hundreds of them...

And then, as always, the common spider, a familiar sight, a slight frustration when they make my washing line their home and i have to avoid damaging their webs, but still a definite source of interest for D...

And we haven't done discovering yet insha'Allah. There is still so much left to distract us from the TV, the computer and from toy traffic jams or dancing in circles to Aloe Blacc. I defy you to not enjoy bug hunting!

Passing on the magazine love...

(My unread free magazines from my local libraries recycling box. The vintage table cloth in the back ground is  mounted on a piece of scrap wood and acts as our fire guard and i made our armchair arm covers from vintage pillow cases with the bottom seam undone) 

Do you read magazines? I have loved magazines since i was a young girl buying BBC Wildlife magazine and various other animal related grown up monthlies. When i hit age 13 i started secretly buying 'More' and 'Just seventeen' - way beyond my years but i was a curious teen! It saddens me to think that i could actually get away with purchasing magazines like that at such a tender age. And for the past 10 years or so of my life i have been buying 'home' magazines - Country Living magazine  being the one i have bought the most.

Right now i subscribe to Country Living and Country Homes and Interiors and i have bought every issue of  BBC Homes and Antiques for the past year and Mollie Makes every month since its release 6 months ago. I will be subscribing to both next month insha'Allah. As well as those four i buy other magazines occasionally and come home with loads of free copies from the library recycling box every month too. I could write a huge post on my magazine love and the pleasure i get from sitting down with one (and a cup of tea) but i will save that for another day. 

(All the November issues which i haven't even managed to start yet!)

So, being as i have this guilty, luxury habit (for that's what i see it as) it didn't come as a surprise to find that Little D also loves to look through magazines. He will often be down on hands and knees looking at the (way too many and definitely overpriced) children's magazines in the newsagents whilst i am flicking through the ones overhead. I am yet to buy him one but he has been given a couple which he loves. 

One of those is 'Animal Planet' magazine from the Discovery channel. Although aimed at 7 to 10 year old's, both me and D have really found it quite fascinating - lots of photos, facts, articles and puzzles. Just the kind of magazine i would have bought when i was younger, and exactly the kind i would like D to pester me for too! Its definitely educational and inspiring, with no rubbish to fill in the pages. We keep going back to it and finding things which we hadn't spotted before and he is even learning the names of new to him animals (aardvark, prairie dog and stork). It came with a free 'explorer kit' which we will be taking into the garden at some point, we are big bug fans around here (i have a bug filled post coming up soon insha'Allah).

If ever i see kids reading magazines they are normally ones associated with cartoon characters and although they do have their fun elements, i cant help but feel that the parents are really missing a huge opportunity to get their kids reading something educational and fun. Magazines like Animal Planet really don't have any downsides in my opinion.

Please do share with me the names of some of your favourite magazines from past and present!!?

* I was given Animal Planet for the purpose of review - but we genuinely love it!

The last bits of summer...

Its hard to remember how warm and bright the days were last week, and even the first few days of this week too. We had a final blast of summery weather which one would never associate with this time of year. Still in shorts and tshirts (for the little one) and summery long dresses and thin cardigans (for me) with no plans to get my winter woolen coat out of storage.

But right now we are in full on Autumn mode - blustery wind, rain storms, subdued sunlight and i noticed today that our apple trees are almost bare again,with the grass covered with the fallen leaves and the last of the fruit. 

This cooler (perhaps i could even say cold weather) has meant that i can get on with some of the harder gardening work i still want to get done this year. I have extended the path which i laid earlier this year and am tripling the size of my veg path for next year insha'Allah.

So before summer becomes a distant memory, i wanted to save the last of my summer photos here, these are the special little bits that i can remember right now and that i don't want to forget...