September - How Did That Happen?!

September is here!

I love September; it is the start of my favourite time of the year. The nights are drawing in; already it is pitch dark by 9pm and changing daily. I love Autumn because of the colours due to the changing of the season. I am sooo looking forward to lighting the Rayburn next month but in the meantime chilly nights will have us sitting away from the TV room and being snuggly in the living room with the wood burner. (We do watch TV in the darker months but sometimes we just like 'being'; listening to music, reading and me probably planning the garden for the months ahead!

Therefore I have been taking photos to show how things have progressed thus far and maybe a little show and tell of things that have gone on since we began harvesting from our little plot and beds, things I have preserved and made etc.

I made 5 jars of damson jam and some fruit leathers with gifted damsons; we gifted and sold some, too.
I have pickled 2 jars of beetroot, one given away as a gift along with some jam.  (I plan on making more.)
2 lots of stewed apple for the freezer with giften cookers along with crumbles, some sold and gifted.
2 good sized jars of pickled gherkins.
2 jars of refrigerator pickles which I luuuurve!

A little update, I was gifted some cooking apples yesterday and now I can make some chutney to keep in stock. Not sure what kind yet but very pleased to have received the apples.

Thanks to the wonder of the Welsh countryside I have foraged about 3lbs of blackberries. These have been used with yoghurt for my Slimming World diet, instead of buying mixed berries, for crumbles with the free apples and some are for making blackberry vodka for Christmas.

Now here are a few photos from the garden, using the new camera of course! Here is the Poly House looking a little different to recent times.

The tomatoes are still flowering and there are still quite a lot to pick, too.

Also in there are the chillis...

and also the sweet potatos.

The cucumbers and gherkins are coming to the final flowering I think.

Now for outside. THESE are my Christmas spuds and the variety is Duke of York. I can't believe how well they are already doing; as you can see the ones I have put in a tyre are doing well, too.

The sweetcorn is getting nearer the stage of harvesting but has a way to go yet as the tops of the cobs are not all dried yet.

It seemed we'd had the last of the courgettes but this plant has had a welcome spurt and looking great.

Now, this post also covers Phase Two of our Airbnb project. Jon has been working on it since last weekend after a friend visited bringing with him some building materials we needed.

He started by getting the stud wall up between the bathroom and bedroom...

positioning the basin and toilet...

and setting the shower tray in place.

Jon bought a shed load of windows from various places and this one was perfect for the bathroom; didn't need to be frosted as too high for anybody to see in. He made a brilliant job of the frame so is confident he can make the rest of the frames for all of the windows.

The boys were giving a hand yesterday as he was getting the plaster board up and the flooring down.

  
 

More progress reports soon.

Ok, that's it for today. I have been writing this post after getting home very wet due to watching Alfie in his first football tournament. He is goaly and did really, really well even though their team was knocked out of the group.

Look forward to seeing what everybody has been up to over the weekend.

Bye for now, Lou.xx