After the spring and summer madness there's the autumn hubbub. With time limited opportunities to harvest and forage it means that dry weekends are spent gathering and making to preserve the available produce for months to come. It's been a year which has felt even more hectic than ever so far and I wonder whether things will start to loosen up over the coming weeks or if it will just be trading one hurry for another. There are so many changes that could or perhaps should happen in the coming few years yet I can only feel despondent about change. As with most things which come to pass 'be careful what you wish for' as it very much feels like the world around us casually trades the frying pan for the inferno itself.

Take care on these crabby autumn days,
Sophie

Crab apples look decidedly ugly and unappetizing. As someone who operates a blanket policy of hating small fruit, I would automatically have ignored crab apples even if they did look like perfect little examples. There's something good you can make with these unloved fruits, crab apple jelly!
There's a bountiful supply of them in hedgerows and just alongside roads (presumably where drivers have lobbed apple cores and a gnarly tree has grown) although of course, there's ever so many more out of reach than you can collect. On our second trip out to forage some we found the wind had taken most out of the trees and left them on the floor like giant perilous marbles - I nearly went base over apex to my horror.


We vowed to make use of some this year. Our first haul was decent, alongside our blackberry haul so C decided to make a crab apple and blackberry batch as well as a spiced crab apple batch.
Both have set perfectly and I find myself seeking it out to eat with chicken (sadly our redcurrants didn't materialise this year). They are much sweeter than expected and for that reason I think C will give it a wide berth by I don't mind. To be honest they would work as a sweet treat too, like little jellies as part of a dessert or on toast. Yum.
They both taste delicious and very different. So cheap to make too, just the price of sugar and a few store cupboard spices. We save jars and bottles furiously and acquire them from others too and have a decent preserving kit now.

On our second trip out to forage some we found the wind had taken most out of the trees and left them on the floor like giant perilous marbles - I nearly went base over apex to my horror.

There are so many varieties to make with crab apple as the base. Ones with herbs in, rowan, haw, blackberries... It does seem to be quite adaptable. It's not something you hear much about now but we're firmly set on foraging for treats. I'll be sharing some more of our makes in posts to come.

Take care,
Sophie

What a privilege to get so close to a stunning dragonfly such as this one. Throwing it back to the  August bank holiday weekend when the temperatures soared and spirits were high!
It feels such a distant memory now but worth sharing nevertheless.

Take care,
Sophie

Photographs from a brief wander last Sunday in between rain showers. The day felt distinctly dreary and although we had resigned ourselves to spending time tending to indoor activities, the dry spell in the afternoon prompted us to gather ourselves for an optimistic spot of foraging. Our chosen place was thoroughly devoid of our sought-after fruits which was a little disappointing and there wasn't much at all of interest to snap away at but here are my highlights,
The ivy in flower must be one of the most overlooked joys out there. Stand by a tree with ivy in flower growing up it's trunk and pause, the hum of the insects is incredible! At this time of year when there's nothing much to feed on at all the ivy is their saviour.


The green is on the turn.
Never touch any berries unless you are certain of their identity and know they are safe. Above, these are poisonous.
The hawthorne leaves and haws create an autumnal palette all of their own.
Swipes of red on the hedge.
Rosebay willowherb leaves turning a fiery red.

Not as much fungi to be seen as I wold have expected considering the conditions.


Leaves tangling in gorse.
Oh dear the dark clouds are rolling in again...
Here comes the rain.
Retreat back to the car empty handed.

Take care,
Sophie

Are you an Only Connect fan? Unless that's a resounding yes then this post is for you. If it is a yes already then you have my greetings and firm approval but perhaps you might like to read on regardless.

I'm what I'd like to call an enthusiastic but hapless quizzer. I love to get involved, but sadly and more often than I'd like to, find that I have little input of any use to contribute. Nevertheless, the challenge is irresistible.

'What's Only Connect?', I hear most of you ask. It's only the toughest and best quiz on tv. When I first encountered the said show it was just by chance around 5 or 6 years ago and found it utterly baffling - what on Earth was going on? I didn't even understand the questions, let alone the answers.

Fast forward to three years ago when somehow we found ourselves tuned in and playing along for the fun of it, pretty cluelessly it has to be said, but the sport is in the chase and chasing the answers we certainly were.

There's a few things you ought to know about Only Connect. Firstly, that the host Victoria Coren Mitchell is the dazzling linchpin, who keeps the teams in order, dishes out the wit and ensures we're entertained. She's one of those people I'd name when asked who I'd like to invite to a dinner party, except I'm not bright enough to survive her razor sharp intellect and wit, so perhaps I'd just listen to her and the rest of the guests have a chat while I linger nearby like a nervy waiter.

There are two teams of three who compete against one another each week. The first round of 'matches' is the most achievable round in terms of bagging some correct answers. Winning teams proceed to the second round matches but that's as far as we all know for sure because the rules seem to change each series on how things unfold. The teams mostly have names that make me uncomfortable, I don't know if anyone else feels this way? Is it a rule to name your team something odd? The Beaks, LARPers and the Meeples are my personal pick of names to squirm at.

There are four rounds to each show.

The first is a simple concept of finding the connection between four clues. If you find it after just a single clue being revealed then you get 5 points but let's face it, you have to be pretty bold to find a connection based on just one item. Guess correctly at clue 2 and it's 3 points, at clue 3 then 2 points and if you take a look at all 4 of the clues it'll be a single point - though a solitary point is sweet ambrosia indeed. If the team fail to guess correctly within their time then it's thrown over for the other team to steal a prized point. There's a timer running and here's where my expert advice comes into play. PRESS PAUSE. At clue 1 press pause. Have your very own long winded thought process and dabbling at theories, do not feel bound by the realtime time restrictions of the show - they have a schedule to follow! Your Only Connect quizzing will be exponentially enriched by playing along at your own pace rather than being hurried by the frankly genius contestants they continue to find - where do they find them?

Choose a hieroglyph. And choose whether you want to say horned with one syllable or two. Anyone else give the hieroglyphs alternative names? I bet you do.

On to round 2: the sequences round, which, if you successfully scraped any point(s) from round 1 may well leave you deflated as it trickies up no end at this point. Again, you start with a clue. If by some power of telepathy you can read the minds of quiz-setters extraordinaires (and we do hear some anecdotal gems from VCM of these lads) by guessing what comes 4th in a sequence based on 1 clue then give yourself a Mensa membership. I may or may not have had to double check how Mensa is spelled. Points are attributed in the same way to round 1.
Again, partake with all the pausing and wondering aloud. Although C likes to internalise his monologue, blocking out the sound of my thoughts to formulate his ideas before sharing. Lincoln, our staffie and third team member contributes nothing at all.

Rounds 1 and 2 are mostly made up of written clues but beware for pictures popping up and the universally dreaded music question. I not-so-secretly yearn to waltz through the musical clues. I did get the _andy one the other week, hurrah!

I need to re-iterate, there is no celebration too small for scoring points. You. Are. Triumphing.
Even more so if the teams can't find the answers. Let's overlook their time constraints and how they can only submit one guess.

Round 3 is the wall. 16 seemingly random clues which need to be sorted into four groups which can be virtually anything. This requires a pause and lots of ideas, always aloud. There's always plenty of red herrings to go round. The teams get points for correctly grouping clues and an explanation of why.

Round 4 is the mss ngvwl srnd or the missing vowels round. A 'theme' with the answers displayed missing their vowels. It's here we excel ourselves - a hidden talent for reading the words. Ratcheting up the points.

Did I mention it's exhausting? It's all well and good having a play along in your own time but you don't want to miss out on all the fun with the teams - especially those occasional sing-alongs.
I haven't gone into the depths of rules and gameplay - you'll have to figure those out for yourself. This post was more an outpouring of over-enthusiasm for the most fiendish quiz you may not yet play (but would love to, given a chance!).

Only Connect is found on BBC2 Mondays at 8pm currently, we're about 4 episodes in to the series of 31 so you can catch up on the 'easier' (haha) rounds at your leisure on IPlayer.

Please tell me you love it already or want to give it a try!

Take care,

Sophie

We know how I feel about the onset of ugly Autumn and it's vile cohort Winter but the calendar persists in relentlessly ratcheting round despite my protestations. So what does the new season have in store for me? I feel a list coming on.

Forage elderberries, rose hips, sweet chestnuts, crab apples, blackberries, sloes, plums and whatever else we can make use of

Make crumbles, country wines, jams, syrups and infusions

Photograph the changing landscape

Plan for Christmas, arrange festivities, buy and make thoughtful gifts

Write about the good things we get up to 

Swap my wardrobe around and sort through clothes to part with what I no longer can wear

Pot up winter plants for the front door

Plant tulips and spring bulbs

Continue to harvest remaining allotment produce, store or use

Make soups and casseroles

Tidy allotment, flower patch, greenhouse and garden but not over-tidy - remember wildlife

Plan uplifting times out- meals, walks, events