Autumn Almanac

[callmemadam]

My favourite season and I’m sorry for people who don’t enjoy it. I actually liked going back to school. New shoes! New stationery (always had a thing for it)! Happy memories of going into a misty, chilly garden to pick a few blackberries for my cornflakes, sniffing the smoky smell of chrysanthemums. What happened to those ‘great tawny chrysanthemums’ which are mentioned so often in old books? This year I only have these pink ones, which were on special offer at the garden centre.






There's one apple tree in my new garden and last year there wasn't a single apple worth picking. This year, it's laden. Nice crisp fruit, don't know the variety. Hope I can manage to pick them.



This berberis is the the size of a small tree and is currently dripping with coral pods.



Cotoneasters are rather weedy in that they seed themselves into cracks and are then hard to get rid of. The berries are jolly, though.



Another weed (my opinion). This is Tutsan or Hypericum androsaemum, a British native. It has yellow flowers followed by berries which are yellow, then red and finally black, as here. Far too keen on self seeding itself all over the place and hard to dig up.



Lots of hazel nuts in my hedge. I took these photos yesterday and did quite a bit of gardening. Just as well; today it's cold and wet.

Comments

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Wow, great-looking apples! I would be delighted to relieve you of any surplus...

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

The stepladder will await you.

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

I love Autumn, too.

The pictures are lovely, but I am bound to agree with you about Hypericum. I have just one, in a hedgerow about 100' from the house where it makes a nice splash of colour and I don't have to worry about it.

[aellia.livejournal.com]

I have hundreds of Hypericum guests.
Is it St John's Wort?
The squirrels have eaten my hazel nuts and tiny crab apples are my only fruit
Your apples look luscious!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

The hypericums with bigger flowers can look cheerful but they all have a weedy look to me.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

St John's Wort is some different sort of hypericum. You're welcome to your guests!

Little caterpillars get into my hazel nuts. We're obviously not intended to eat them ourselves.

[lurpak.livejournal.com]

It's my favourite time of year too. I am hoping we will have some golden autumn days to come.

We've got loads of apples on in the garden this year too, must be a bumper year for them!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

And for cherries, apparently!

[lethe1]

New stationery (always had a thing for it)!

Oh yes! I used to love buying all the new stuff for school.

[geraniumcat.livejournal.com]

If you'd all like to heave up your Tutsan and send it up to Northumberland, it would be assured of a welcome from me :) That cotoneaster looks very pretty, and the bees and hoverflies do love the flowers (or at least, they do up here, but perhaps they have greater choice in the south?)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Really? I did once hear Roy Lancaster say it was a favourite plant of his. The trouble with the Tutsan is that I dig out seedlings but the one I photographed can't be heaved up because it's in a paving crack. No doubt you have some weed I'd be delighted to give a home to :-)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I wish you could still get those exercise books with tables of weights and measures and other useful stuff on the back. Perhaps you didn't have them? Even a new ruler pleased me. Sad.

[gghost.livejournal.com]

Autumn is also my favorite time of year. I always loved returning to school, especially with new shoes ... sometime I even wish that I still could.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Hee, I still like new shoes!

[mrsminiversdaughter.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

Hardly ever see those big, coppery mop-head chrysanthemums these days. Are they unfashionable or have they completely disappeared?

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I think probably the ones in the books were greenhouse plants. I'm sure we used to grow them outisde, though; must get a catalogue from Woolman's.

BTW tried to put a comment on your blog this morning about shopping but it wouldn't let me :-(