Warm weather has delayed Autumn but it's finally arriving

Nearly another month has rushed by - it's true what they say about time passing faster as you get older.  Everything has changed in the countryside, the leaves are turning to their Autumn colours, the short cut to the field is covered in fallen mountain ash leaves and there are fungi everywhere.

My Workaway Bill and I had a day out on the north coast visiting the practically deserted beach at Pordic - just two swimmers who had just come out onto the beach.  It was beautiful there and I collected an armful of different shells.  

We then went on to Binic.  After a quick walk we  and sat and had a crepe from the market before having a walk along the front.  There was a lovely looking seafood restaurant, Cabane a Crabes, right at the end of the harbour which I would like to and eat at one day.  As I walked past I could see the lunches the diners were enjoying and my eyes were green.

My housecarers from last October returned to help me out for this October's trip back to Cornwall.  Being a small world, it turned out that they had mutual friends with my occasional neighbours from across the lane, Val and Mark and that they only lived about a mile from my neighbours back in Oxford.  Ian and his American wife, Jeannine are lovely and not only looked after my animals and the house but also juiced all my grapes and put nineteen litres of packaged juice into my freezers.  They also took delivery from my friends Jac and Ken of a load of hay for me to use for animal and poultry bedding - grand job.

I was lucky with the weather in Cornwall and it only rained on my last evening.  Luckily it was dry for me doing the long pack of the car.  In spite of the damage to the Land Rover I managed to nurse it there and back.  Bill, my Workaway until I left for England, made a wooden repair for it to cover the worst of the damage and make it slighter better for any pedestrians brushing by the parked vehicle.  

The local bodyshop owner has now been to collect my Discovery and has left me a small, petrol, left hand drive, manual, two door car, so something to get used to over the next few weeks/months, until I get my repaired vehicle back.  I suppose there's still a chance they may write it off when the examiner looks at it, I shall have to wait and see.

My second day in Cornwall was my daughter's birthday and we went for lunch to The Heron at Malpas.  It was a glorious sunny day - seriously hot sitting on the terrace outside to eat lunch and my mussels with sweet potato chips were delicious too.  

Friends Chris and Carole came to stay for a few days before I went back to the UK and we went walking on two days - a bit of a shock to my system but I did enjoy it really!  

We also met up again for lunch when they were in Cornwall while I was and had lunch in Charlestown before they carried on to stay with friends for the weekend.

Other visitors to Brittany, at the end of September, were Viv and Geoff, old friends who I hadn't seen since my fat days, and Geoff's sister.  They treated me to lunch at Le Pelinec and it was lovely catching up after all this time - at least six years.  Neither of them seemed to have changed at all and it was a lovely if brief meeting up.

The acer in the large flower bed in the garden is changing daily and looks glorious with the sun shining through the leaves - I have taken so many photographs but it's hard to resist.

Just as I got back home here, a young German girl, Lynn, wrote to me saying that the placement she had for Workaway wasn't clean and wasn't nice.  Amongst other problems, they had put her in an unheated caravan to sleep. I collected her on Friday and she is now helping me here until Sunday next week.  This morning we have cut back the mass of brambles which climb the tall bank from the lane and arrive just behind the swimming pool.  It has never been cleared like this while I've been here and I'm very happy with what we've achieved this morning.  Those who know me would have been astounded to see me climbing to the top of the bank - I'm terrified of heights - even standing on a chair is too much - and using both hand to hard prune the brambles and nettles to the ground. I came in to cook lunch before the heavens opened and three hours later the rain is still pouring down.  

Two other Workaway requests this weekend: a young French chap and a Spanish boy each would like to come at the beginning of the second week of November.  If the weather is kind I hope that we may be able to re-felt a chicken shed roof, clear gutters and do the other things for which I need a strong and taller male.

The bees have had their varroa strips removed now and apart from putting insulation boards into the roof sections of the hives I think that is all that has to happen before winter.  Oh - apart from turning them all 180° to make the access easier now that my neighbour's boundary trees have grown.  I'm not sure I am able to lift a full hive, so was very pleased to meet someone who may be able to help me on Thursday when I did a fungi foray.

The fungi foray was arranged by Barbara, above left, and she organised for an expert mycologist, Paul Nichol, to come over from the UK to take a group of us  around two different wooded sites, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, with a very pleasant lunch in between at Les Restrouvailles near Plevin.

I was a total pain and managed to slip my small shoulder bag of my shoulder during the latter part of the morning walk and had to go back to look for it.  I was accompanied by the very amenable Darren, who spotted it within five minutes and we were able to rejoin the group only slightly late, at the restaurant.

It was a very enjoyable day and I do hope there will be other foraging days arranged.  I certainly learned a lot about fungi and hope I can retain it.  We found so many different varieties of edible and non-edible fungi and it was a very pleasant day.  

These were the fungi I collected in the morning 

and this was the afternoon's bounty.

One of the chap on the foray, Jim, was someone who had helped me out in the past with the delivery of a drake and he told me that he also keeps bees.  I am hoping that he will lend me his strong arms to turn my four hives at some time in the near future. 

Lots of herbaceous plants came back with me from the UK and they have all now been planted out along with twenty wallflower plants - never seen these in Brittany - and they will all be appreciating this long rainy session we are having today.

Three things I like:

1.   Clearing up the garden and filling the compost bins on the field.  Luckily, for the perennial weeds and brambles we have a garden tip in the village, just the other side of the calvaire, so within wheelbarrowing distance.
   
2.    Coming back through my house door again - I love coming home - especially to my woodburner, and especially in the dark evenings after I've put the animals to bed.

3.   Eating my first lamb joint from this year's flock.  A beautifully sweet shoulder with all the usual culprits for a lovely roast meal.