Last Sunday

One other thing we managed to do over the weekend was advertised on the local Next Door and Facebook pages - 100 tractors in a charity tractor run from west Suffolk into our area and back by a different route. Small boys and some bigger ones like tractors so we all went to watch them pass the end of Son's road. Much tooting and waving, we forgot to count but there were "quite a few" as we say in Suffolk. Huge modern ones as well as the vintage that we often see on a smaller charity tractor run through my village.

Back Tomorrow

Sue 

But We Also Saw the Sunflowers

 The weekend visit from the Surrey family turned out to be very exhausting with a distinct lack of sleep for everyone due to Son-in-Law going down with a really horrible cold and cough on his journey up, Youngest Grandson had a bit of upset tummy and sickness on Saturday which he passed onto mummy (Eldest Daughter) on Sunday night ,who was really poorly and Eldest Grandson spent a lot of time being a seven year old grump! - probably due to all the above.

Then on Monday morning Daughter-in-Law, who is a teaching assistant, had to go into school to do preparation which she hadn't realised until quite late, so Middle Grandson and Youngest Granddaughter were here for the morning too and I had to just deliver the cakes that I'd spent Sunday morning baking (after the family went out) to the WI coffee morning rather than staying to help. Dashing back as quickly as possible to look after grandchildren while Daughter rested and Son-in-Law had to drive 10 miles to get his electric car quick charged before their journey home.

Monday afternoon after everyone had gone I cancelled going to evening WI and this weeks exercise class as I reckoned it was going to take me another day or three to recover and thank goodness I did  because I woke up in the middle of Monday night with a variation of the bug they had kindly passed onto me! It lasted all through Tuesday which I spent alternating between laying on the settee, reading and resting and doing more bits of clearing up, stripping beds, and putting things back in their rightful places after visitors. Thankfully it was only a 24 hour thing so I'm fine again now - although still tired.

(Probably good that Youngest Daughter and Eldest Granddaughter were away on holiday and missed joining in the madness)

In between all the sickness, coughing and grumpy-ness we did manage a couple of things together - firstly a Sunflower Maze, just up the road from home. 

They actually have 3 sunflower mazes but by the time we'd been round the longest and biggest we decided that was enough . And maze is a bit of a misnomer as it only had one very winding path through and no dead ends so it was impossible to get lost which was probably a Very Good Thing!

The eldest two grandchildren liked the bale mountain - giant straw bales piled up and the youngest two got help to get to the top and also liked the sand pits made from giant tractor tyres.

Eldest Grandson  on top of the giant bale mountain at a time he wasn't grumpy!  I rather like this photo- it will be printed out to update the photo frame.

Back Tomorrow.

Sue

Autumn Days

" I saw old Autumn in the misty morn,

Stand shadowless like silence listening to silence"

Ode:Autumn .Thomas Hood (1799-1845)          

September  was the seventh month of the Roman calendar and the Anglo-Saxons called it 'gerst monarth' which means Barley Month. The 1st of the month is the start of meteorological autumn. Astronomically, Autumn doesn't begin until the equinox on the 23rd.

The word autumn comes from Latin Autumnus and it's use dates back to the C14. In the USA it is known as fall and both autumn and fall were used in this country back in the C17. I wonder why  we changed to just using Autumn?

Below is an illustration from the September pages of Edith Holden's Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. What she calls Spanish Chestnut we usually call Sweet Chestnut nowadays. I used to go to a place we found not far from the Smallholding  to collect Sweet Chestnuts sometimes, but they were often empty cases or tiny nuts inside and not really worth the effort.

September dries up wells or breaks down bridges

                                                                                       

Many haws and many sloes make many cold toes.

September was an important month in the past as it was the time for harvest and festivals to celebrate another successful growing year.

Hip! Hip! Hip! for the harvest home,

Now we've taken the last load home,

I ripped my shirt and I teared my skin,

To get my masters harvest in.

                                              "September Blow Soft 'til the Fruits' in the Loft"

Many varieties of apples will be ready this month and pears too so it mustn't be too windy as windfalls are no good for keeping. Both pears from my young pear tree fell off many weeks ago, but I have got a few small apples on the Minarette trees.

Below is a page from The Illustrated Country Year by Celia Lewis. 

I've got some Beech Mast on my young Beech tree in the garden this year. I assumed it was some sort of ornamental Beech as surely the previous owners didn't plant an ordinary Beech in a small garden? They can grow Very Big! Now I'm not so sure as it's put on about 6 feet of new growth this year.

I'll be back sometime next week as I have family here for a few days  then a busy day with WI things.

Sue