Autumn at AJ's

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According to Wikipedia Autumn (also known as fall in North American English) is one of the four temperate seasons. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter, usually in late September (northern hemisphere) or late March (southern hemisphere) when the arrival of night is noticeably earlier.

The word autumn originates from the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French), and was later normalised to the original Latin word autumnus.

Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season. However as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and fall, as well as autumn, began to replace it as a reference to the season.

The alternative word fall is now mostly a North American English word for the season. It traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. During the 17th century, English emmigration to the colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took their language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolescent in Britain, it became the more common term in North America

As a child I went to a Church of England School in a small village in Surrey. This was not because we are a Church-going family - in those days most of the small village schools were run by the church.

We would go to church several times a year from school and there would always be a Harvest Festival service in the Autumn. All the children were encouraged to bring in produce that they had grown and I would always take in fruit and vegetables grown by my grandparents.

I can still smell it now - that familiar church smell mingling with the smell of all the produce on display: fruit, vegetables and bread baked in the shape of a sheaf of wheat.

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We plough the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land,
But it is fed and watered
By God's almighty hand:
He sends the snow in winter,
The warmth to swell the grain,
The breezes and the sunshine,
And soft, refreshing rain.

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord,
O thank the Lord,
For all his love.

He only is the maker
Of all things near and far;
He paints the wayside flower,
He lights the evening star;
The winds and waves obey him,
By him the birds are fed;
Much more to us, his children,
He gives our daily bread.

We thank thee then, O Father,
For all things bright and good,
The seed time and the harvest,
Our life, our health, our food.
Accept the gifts we offer
For all thy love imparts,
And what thou most desirest,
Our humble, thankful hearts.

All good gifts around us
Are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord,
O thank the Lord,
For all his love.

Nowadays my own children do not attend church services but Harvest Festival is still celebrated in their Primary/Elementary School. Sadly these days we are asked to contribute tins of produce, due to worries that food may go "off", so there is no longer an array of natural produce. Following the celebration the donations are distributed to local homeless shelters. This of course is a very worthwhile cause but I cannot help thinking that the children are missing out!

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Endnote: the church is still very much a family church and although we had a Civil Wedding, my Lovely Hubby and I went straight to the Church for a blessing. Yes, I can still smell the Church now and whenever I go back there it fills me with such a feeling of peace and the memories come flooding back.

When we moved here in 1997, there was almost nothing in the back garden. Just two apple trees and a few shrubs. There was a very overgrown rough area at the top of the garden that may have been a vegetable patch, but once we had cleared it, we laid a patio with a very small wildlife pond, which is home to quite a few frogs. The frogs seem quite happy in the pond but sadly we have only ever had one season where there was frogspawn, so obviously something is not right - it may be that it is too shady - but we did have great fun rearing some of the tadpoles in an indoor tank and then releasing them back into the pond when they were big enough.

Over the years, we have planted a mass of plants and bushes and I have a small plastic greenhouse (glass is out of the question due to the amount of balls that get slogged around the garden during games of cricket and tennis) where I grow peppers, tomatoes and aubergines during the summer and in the winter I keep my fuschias. The winter frosts would kill them if I left them outside.

We collect a lot of cooking apples in early autumn and store them in our shed. Then throughout the Autumn and Winter, they provide a regular supply of organically grown apples for apple crumble, which is a favourite pudding.

A recipe inherited from my Mum

Basic Crumble topping

225g (4oz) plain or wholewheat flour
225g (4oz) porridge oats
150g (5oz) soft brown sugar
75g (3oz) butter at room temp
1 level tsp baking powder

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/gas mark 4
Grease the serving dish with margerine or butter - it makes washing up easier!

Put the flour and oats in a large mixing bowl with the baking powder. Add the butter and mix in to the flour either using your fingertips or a fork. When it is all "crumbly" add the sugar and combine.

Sprinkle the crumble mix over whatever filling you have chosen, spread it evenly with a fork, place on a high shelf in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes until the top is tinged with brown.

Fillings

Apple Crumble

900g (2lbs) of cooking apples, peeled and sliced
25g (1oz) soft brown sugar
2 tablespoons of water

Place the sliced apples, sugar and water into a saucepan. Cook gently until the apples are fluffy.
Transfer into an ovenproof dish and cover with crumble mixture. Cook as for crumble mix.

Variations
Add 75g (3oz) raisins to the apple filling - if not everyone likes raisins then only add them to one half of the crumble - using a long rectactular or oval dish makes this easier

Rhubarb Crumble:

900g (2lb) rhubarb
75g (3oz) soft brown sugar
1 level teaspoon powdered ginger

Cut the rhubarb into chunks. Place in a saucepan with the sugar and ginger. Cover and cook over a gentle heat for approx 15 mins, stirring occasionally.

When cooked, drain off half the juice, add to the dish, cover with crumble mix and bake as before.

When we first moved into the house we had cats so the birds would visit the garden and not stay very long. They never nested. But now that our cats are long gone, we get a lot more birds and they nest in various places around the garden. Often I do not even find out they have been there until I am cutting back the shrubs and I find their nests in the Autumn.

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The birds disappear during August as they are moulting and then they start to return. They do not usually start taking the food we leave out for them until the late Autumn as their natural food is normally plentiful. However, we do leave some food out all year round, so that they know where to come when their natural sources start to get in short supply and then we increase what we put out.

As the weather gets colder, we will start to see more birds feeding and these will include: blackbirds, starlings, wrens, robins, collared doves, dunnocks, jackdaws, wood pigeons, magpies, greenfinches, longtailed tits, great tits, blue tits.












We always know when the weather has become intolerable in Russia because the fieldfares and redwings stop by and strip our pyrocantha, holly and cotoneaster bushes of all their berries.

Occasionally a pheasant takes up residence for a few days. But he is not stupid - he will hop next door if the dog goes outside!

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Overhead we often see buzzards, red kites and sparrow hawks and we even had a huge grey heron make a very wobbly landing on our fence one day as he assessed his chances of stealing the fish from next door's pond. No chance! It's covered in heron proof netting.

Ethical Superstore
is "committed to helping you, the ethical consumer "Buy What You Believe". "

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"I'll tell you how the leaves came down,"
The great tree to his children said,
"You're getting sleepy, Yellow and Brown,
Yes, very sleepy, little Red.
It is quite time to go to bed."

"Ah!" begged each silly, pouting leaf,
"Let us a little longer stay;
Dear Father Tree, behold our grief;
Tis such a very pleasant day
We do not want to go away."

So, for just one more merry day
To the great tree the leaflets clung,
Frolicked and danced, and had their way,
Upon the autumn breezes swung,
Whispering all their sports among,

"Perhaps the great tree will forget,
And let us stay until the spring,
If we all beg, and coax, and fret."
But the great tree did no such thing;
He smiled to hear their whispering.

"Come, children, all to bed," he cried;
And ere the leaves could urge their prayer,
He shook his head, and far and wide,
Fluttering and rustling everywhere,
Down sped the leaflets through the air.

I saw them; on the ground they lay,
Golden and red, a huddled swarm,
Waiting till one from far away,
White bedclothes heaped upon her arm,
Should come to wrap them safe and warm.

The great bare tree looked down and smiled,
"Good-night, dear little leaves," he said.
And from below each sleepy child
Replied, "Good-night," and murmured,
"It is so nice to go to bed!"

Susan Coolidge

For about three weeks during late October and early November my husband has the never ending task of sweeping up the leaves from the lawn, mainly from the apple trees. We have to remove them or the worms will pull them down into the lawn, which is not good. We put the leaves into black plastic sacks, tie up the top, pierce the sides in a few places with a garden fork and then leave them behind the shed until the Spring, when I have some lovely natural mulch to put on the garden.

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We also leave piles of sticks and leaves in the corners of the garden as small wildlife refuges. We hope that a hedgehog will find them a warm and comfy place to hibernate, but have not been lucky yet. In the meantime, there's lots of bugs that make a home there and we think that the local woodmice population may be making use of them as well. However, we have to resist taking to close a peek as we don't want to scare them away.

We know they are around because every morning and evening they scarper out of the rabbit run, and we find little piles of food that they have hidden around the rabbit hutch!

This year we have had mice nesting in our greenhouse and I tell a great story about our Greenhouse mice on one of my blogs: How a Woodmouse turned a bad day into a good day

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When I was a child, it was normal for everyone to have bonfires in their gardens to burn all the garden rubbish. Now we compost as much as we can, shred as much as we can and any wood that is too big is either saved to burn in the Chimnea (wood burner) on our patio or it goes into a special large composter at the local tip. Oops sorry, I should say "waste recycling centre".

The Woodmouse who turned
a bad day into a good day

We have a lot of encounters with
wood mice in our garden:
read this!

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!
Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The grey smoke towers.
Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

Robert Louis Stevenson

We do not watch a huge amount of television at AJ's. OK the girls will slump onto the sofa and unwind when they get home from school for an hour or so, but there's very few programmes that make much of an impact on us. There's Dr Who of course and every Saturday night from September to Christmas Lizzie and I curl up on the sofa and watch Strictly Come Dancing. However, my other "Sparky" daughter and I share a love of horses and all things wild, so we try not to miss a single episode of the BBC's excellent "Autumnwatch" with Bill Oddie and Kate Humble.

Autumnwatch is a live programme that is aired every evening, Monday to Friday over two weeks and it is fantastic. You can find out more on the special Autumnwatch website.

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September - Harvest moon
October - Hunter's moon
November - Snow moon

Often, the Harvest Moon seems to be bigger or brighter or more colorful than other moons. These effects have to do with the seasonal tilt of the earth. The warm color of the moon shortly after it rises is an optical illusion, based on the fact that when the moon is low in the sky, you are looking at it through a greater amount of atmospheric particles than when the moon is overhead.

The atmosphere scatters the bluish component of moonlight (which is really reflected white light from the sun), but allows the reddish component of the light to travel a straighter path to your eyes. Hence all moons (and stars and planets) look reddish when they are low in the sky.

As for the large size of a full moon when seen low in the sky, it is true that the human eye perceives a low-hanging moon to be larger than one that's high in the sky. This is known as a Moon Illusion and it can be seen with any full moon. It can also be seen with constellations; in other words, a constellation viewed low in the sky will appear bigger than when it is high in the sky.

Text quoted from: Wikipedia

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We like to look at the stars at all times of the years. Much to my eternal frustration we suffer a lot from light pollution at AJ's, because we are close to towns and of course London. However we often get good views of the stars and we also see the International Space Station flying over - it looks like a very bright fast moving star. There is information on the NASA website and you can look up when it is due to fly over you.

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But back to the stars. According to Skyguide, out of the 88 official constellations designated by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) we can see 68 from the British Isles over the course of a year. During Autumn, these are the constellations we like to look out for:

Capricorn
Aquarius
Aries and Triangulum
Pegagsus
Pisces
Perseus
Equuleus
Andromeda
Cetus

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A little rant to start with. I detest the door knocking that goes on, when children you do not know come begging at your door asking for sweets. Grrrrrrr!

Needless to say, we do not allow our children to go "Trick or treating". But what we do is carve pumpkins and the girls dress up for the school Halloween Disco. We also make soup from the flesh of the pumpkins and we use the lit pumkins on Bonfire Night (05 November) as well as leaving them to cast their eerie glow in the garden at Halloween.

There's some excellent Halloween lenses on Squidoo, check out the links below.

1 pumpkin weighing 1.35 - 1.6 kg (3-3.5lb)
1 tablesp groundnut oil
1 large inion, peeled and finely chopped
850ml (1.5 pints) of vegetable or chicken stock
425ml (15 fl oz) whole milk
25g (1 oz) butter
Freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:
110g (4 oz) Gruyere or Fontina cheese cut into small dice
50g (2 oz) Gruyere or Fontina cheese, coarsely grated
6 teasp creme fraiche
Croutons
Flat-leaf parsley

You will also need a baking sheet that will not buckle under the intense heat, a 3.5 ltr (6 pint) saucepan and a liquidiser/blender

Pre-heat the oven to 475F/240C/gas mark 9

If you are using the flesh left over from carving a pumpkin, which is what we do, then try to scoop it out in as big pieces as possible and cut down on the roasting time.

Cut the pumpkin in half through the stalk, then cut each half into 4. Scoop out the seeds using a large spoon. Brush the surface of the flesh on each side with the oil and place on the baking tin.

Season with salt and peper, put on a high shelf in the oven and leave to roast until tender - approx 25-30 minutes.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over a high heat and add the onion. Keep stirring so it does not burn and when it begins to colour around the edges, turn the heat down. Let it cook gently, without a lid, for a bout 20 minutes. Give it an occasional stir.

When the pumpkin is cooked, remove from the oven and leave aside to cool.

Add the stock and the milk to the onions and leave with the heat turned low until it just comes to simmering point. Scoop out the flesh from the roasted pumpkin and add to the saucepan. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Let it simmer gently for about 15-20 mins.

Pour the liquid into a blender/liquidiser - because there is so much, you will need to do this half at a time. Process the soup to a puree, but it is a good idea to pour the soup through a sieve, in case any lumpy bits remain. Season according to taste.

When you are ready to serve, then reheat the soup gently up to simmering point, being careful not to let it boil. Stir in the diced cheese (you do not want it to melt to quickly), then ladel the soup into warm bowls.

Garnish each serving with a teaspoon of creme fraiche and scatter with the grated cheese and parsley (if you like it!)

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Traditional nursery rhyme

As a child I have memories of lots of bonfires and being wrapped up warm - it does seem that Autumns were colder then. My most vivid memory though was when my brother was so lucky not to get badly burnt. In the UK we used to have a firework called a "Jumping Jack". It was very small and like a green worm that was concertina in shape. You lit the fuse and then quickly let it go and watch as it jumped around all over the place until it burnt out. I still cannot work out how it happened by a Jumping Jack jumped right up my brother's trouser leg!

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We do not have a bonfire at AJ's on "Fireworks night" but we usually have some fireworks. There is always a spectacular fireworks dispaly at our local park but because of her Auditory Processing Disorder, Lizzie often finds it too painful for her ears so we make do watching it from home. We have a flat roof that we can get onto at the back of the house out of one of the bedroom windows, which gives us a fantastic view!

During the Autumn, we have some regular tasks in the garden. Our rabbits have to be moved from their Spring and Summer location on the lawn onto the patio, so that the grass under their runs (we have three bunnies in two hutches) can recover. It also means that we can use the concrete path for feeding them and a path is not worn across the lawn.

Each year we have to do a major clear out of our shed so that our two rather elderly bunnies' night hutch can go under cover to make sure that in these senior years, they don't get too cold and that the rabbits stay healthy - my husband is really looking forward to clearing the shed! Ha, ha!



Then it's a question of working out when the best time is to prune our clematis, roses, shrubs and trees, but I have my great "How to prune" book to consult and make sure I don't do it at the wrong time. When I was child I remember my grandmother pruning her roses around October time. But now I sometimes have roses in bloom up until Christmas.



Once all the Autumn work is done in the garden, it's a question of snuggling down in anticipation of Christmas - but that's another lens!

25 October 2008

Over Christmas 2007, once all the leaves had fallen from our apple tree, I noticed a small platform of twigs appear in the top of the tree. From December to April a pair Magpies laboured long and hard and built a spectacular nest. In the UK the Magpie is the only bird that builds a nest with a roof.

It was fascinating to watch as the construction took shape and in April it was obvious the female was on the nest. The male was very attentive and would fly back and forth, bringing food to the female, although she would make visits to our bird bath and small pond to get water.

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We had no way of knowing how many chicks there were. As they grew we could see their faces as they peered out of the opening on the south side of the nest and when they ventured out, it was only ever two at a time, with one remaining in the nest.

During May and June the babies would sit out on the branches, waiting for their parents to feed them and then one day, they were all gone. We would still see them in the garden though, because it takes a long time for their bottle green tail feathers to grow, so it was easy to distinguish the chicks from the adults.

The blackbirds built a nest behind my green house in the honeysuckle, but they abandoned four eggs - they probably thought that with Magpies so close by, it was too risky to try to raise chicks. However, just a bit further into the honeysuckle we think the robins raised a brood as we would see the adults coming and going. They would perch on the top of the greenhouse, make sure there was no danger and then drop down into the bush behind. I will be able to see if there was a nest once I do my Autumn pruning.

My Dad said to watch out to see if the squirrels showed any interest in the nest and told us that we would know they had taken it over, if we saw leaves amongst the twigs. My daughter said she thought she had seen a squirrel investigating the nest and sure enough today our suspicions were confirmed.

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We have just spent a delightful 10 minutes watching the squirrel emerge from the nest, run down the tree, gather some fallen leaves and scamper back up into the nest. So far we have only seen one squirrel, but it is working very hard to convert the nest into a drey so it has somewhere very snug to live in through the winter.

Squirrels in the UK breed in May and August, so we are hoping that despite having a very large dog whose joy in life is to chase squirrels, that they decide to take up residence. Food is plentiful in our garden because we feed the birds so that will be an added incentive for them to hand around.

If only we could set up a webcam......

26 October 2008
There was a lot of human activity in the garden yesterday afternoon as we moved two rabbit runs, plus one two storey hutch onto the patio, just to the left of the apple tree. The shed was tidied and the elderly bunnies' hutch is now in the winter quarters. These bunnies will be put out into the run on dry days - but they will still have the shelter of their day box. We like to give them the chance of exercise as much as we can - did you know that their joints will stiffen up and cause them a lot of pain if they are cooped up in a hutch all the time?

Unsurprisingly, while all this activity was going on, we saw no sign of "Nutkin" as the girls have started calling the squirrel. However, the girls report having seen him in the tree, late this afternoon, pulling leaves directly from the branches, under the watchful eye of a pair of magpies.

We are not sure if the Magpies will give up their Summer residence that easily!

30 October 2008
It is very cold and there is still snow on the ground from the night before last. No sign of the squirrel, but s/he may be active in the mornings before we get up - it is Half Term (mid-term break) and so we are not up and about as early as we normally are on school days.

01 November 2008
Great excitement! We are almost sure that there are TWO squirrels, so it is more likely they will be able to fight off any take-over manoeuvres from the Magpies.

We watched one of them clamber down the climbing frame, that is up against their tree, go up the swing frame, into the small apple tree and over the fence into next door's garden, where it raided some bird food. It can't get at our bird food - not sure how the neighbours will feel about that! However, we will be putting peanuts out for the squirrels, but we may just make it an effort for them to get them - it's much more fun to watch.

02 November 2008
We can now tell the difference between the squirrels. Nutkin has a reddish head, with a reddish stripe down his back, which carries on down his tail. Bushtail has, yes, you've guessed it - a bushy tail.

Both look very well fed and while one takes leaves up to the nest, to fill in the gaps, the other will feed. Then they swap round. We have no idea which is the male and which is the female.

13 November 2008
Both squirrels are still very active, taking leaves up into the drey and stealing next door's birdfood. My daughter put some nuts on top of the flat dormer roof over her bedroom. The squirrels, magpies and jackdaws really enjoyed them, but it sounded like an army up there!

22/23 November
I am worried. I have not seen the squirrels for at least a week. Locally, some people have been trying to trap squirrels - they are too far away to be a danger to our squirrels, but I do know that some people hate them and I am starting to wonder if one of my neighbours is not happy having them around....

24 November
Just ironing a shirt for Lovely Hubby this morning and was looking out the window. Hurray! Saw a squirrel leave the nest. Sparky was on her way to school, so I texted her - she had been worried too and was really pleased to get my message.

30 November
One of the squirrels has white ears. They seem well established in the nest, which they have converted into a drey. They are usually the most active in the morning. Although they are burying food in our garden, they seem to do most of their feeding in the garden next door, where a tray is put out on top of an old tree stump.

We put food on a platform in the apple tree but they are a bit more wary of running around in our garden - probably because of our dog!

New Year Update
We think the squirrels are semi-hibernating as the weather has been extremely cold. We do not see them everyday but they have plugged all the gaps in the lower part of the drey with leaves and they come out occasionally to pick up nuts from next door. We have food in our garden but squirrels normally forage away from their drey.

We watched as the magpies tried to reclaim their nest, but it was only a half hearted attempt. We will have to wait and see if they return nearer their breeding time or if they will give up and move elsewhere.

September 22 2009
Well the squirrels did not breed either in May or August. For much of the summer, we were not sure if they were still in the nest. However, after a very windy day a couple of weeks ago, one of the squirrels was spotted picking apple leaves and filling up the gaps. So they are still around.

We have been on the lookout for a flock of these birds for a couple of weeks now. The weather is very cold, but they do not usually arrive until just before Christmas.

There is a big cotoneaster tree at the end of our garden and this year it has more berries than I think I have ever seen. Fieldfares and Redwings usually strip it bare in a matter of days and their arrival is a sign that the weather has worsened in Scandinavia and Russia.

At mid-day I glanced out to the apple tree. There is a lot of activity there, as lots of different birds perch there while they have a look to see what food may be available. There will be rabbit food on the path, that my daughter tips out when she feeds her bunnies every morning. There's fat balls and containers with peanuts and seed hanging from the branches. Just recently, we have had black birds, blue tits, great tits, long tailed tits, robins, jackdaws, jays, wrens, collared doves and wood pigeons making regular stops in the garden and occasionally the sparrow hawk flies through - you have to be quick to spot it.

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"Fieldfare"

The first Scandinavian visitor has just arrived - a Fieldfare and from the way it is preening itself I think it has just reached the end of a very long journey. If past experience is anything to go by, another 20 or 30 will arrive soon.

Winter has definitely arrived in this part of the UK.

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Downloading copies of these photos, for whatever use, is illegal unless you have my written permission.

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