Blustery weather

A blustery day saw me walking up to the top of the farm, it threatened a downpour but I captured this wide, wide view of our landscape.

Harvest

I am anxiously keeping my eyes on the pumpkins and dahlias hoping they will last until the end of this month when they are needed to decorate St Peter's and St Blaise for our harvest lunch.

Autumn in the garden

Our scarecrow is looking slightly worse for wear after a summer spent outside, but now he is surrounded by berries which are ripening on both the holly and the hawthorn.

Men on a mission

Dave and our neighbour set off to investigate the large number of mole hills which are appearing in our top field.

Ploughing

Our neighbour is busy ploughing and late into the evening I can hear the tractor making its way up and down the fields.

Mr Squirrel

With his back turned it took me a moment to realise that I was looking at a squirrel. They are actually quite a rare sight here at the farm. When he turned I could see he was eating damsons!

The third cut

Amazingly this is the third cut of grass this year (the most we've ever had and testimony to a rather cool damp summer). A mad rush of action saw it all cut and cleared in just a couple of (noisy) days!

Morning light

When I went outside (raspberry hunting) this morning the oak trees were highlighted against a deep grey sky. I love this timeless view.

Foxes beware

Today is definitely autumnal and across the field the hunt spend a lot of time looking for a scent. The hounds meanwhile just seem to be enjoying a run out in the fresh air.

The end of summer

Getting breakfasts ready for our guests today I had to hunt around for the raspberries and our seemingly endless supply of alpine strawberries are also starting to dwindle. I guess I really need to embrace autumn but our huge yellow pumkins aren't very helpful breakfast fare!