Autumn has arrived late in St André

The blackbirds and thrushes have been gorging themselves on the remaining grapes still hanging from the vines along the cottages and my house.  Whenever I walk towards the cottages the birds come flying out in panic and yesterday I found a sparrow hawk feather on the ground under the vines.  

They have also stripped nearly all the shiny, red berries off the holly on the terrace.  I pruned the honeysuckle hard as soon as they’d enjoyed the fruits on that and it is now a bare, reduced frame of branches against the garden wall.

My amazing cosmos, outside my sitting room window, had over 90 blooms when I counted earlier in the week.  Even the first frost we had didn’t knock it back and due to it’s location I can enjoy it from my chair inside too.  

Thanks to the BBC Breakfast Weather team I have remembered, this year, to cover my Echium pininana with fleece to protect it.  Being a biennial, or sometimes a triennial, it grew to about a metre high this year and, if it survives the winter, will produce a spectacular 16ft/5m column of tiny blue flowers in 2018 or 2019.  I grew them in Cornwall and can remember my mother, who sat in the upstairs sitting room window above the flower bed, saying that she could almost see them grow.  In the Isles of Scilly on Tresco, they grow like weeds in the favourable climate there.

When Marianne was staying we drove around one afternoon and ended up at the ruined Abbaye de Koad Malouen.  

I had been there once before but this time took photographs.  It was a beautiful, sunny day and the Abbaye looked particularly impressive against the blue skies.

A few months ago I bought a dehydrator to preserve food.  I hadn't used it, but after buying a couple of pots of mushrooms from the supermarket to grow at home, I harvested a large bowlful and sliced and dried them.  I was very pleased with how easy it was to do and with the results, which I have put into sterilised jars until I need them.

The Autumn is bringing changes everywhere in the lanes.

The first frost on my strawberry plants.

These nasturtiums are growing on the village garden waste tip.  

and parasols on the verge in my lane.

A neighbouring family enjoying the sunshine

and someone in a nearby village having an afternoon walk

I've found something I love eating and I can't stop making these prawns in batter dipped in soy sauce.  The sweetness of the prawns with the saltiness of the soy is lovely.  Do not try them if you have an addictive personality - you have been warned ...

The neighbour's kitten, Vanille, who I now call Nilly, has virtually moved in with us.  She is very cute and is more than welcome to stay.  My other cats, Claude and Purrdy are not entirely happy about this but no fur has been flying so far ...   Here she is waking up from behind my laptop lid ...

Three things I like:

1.   I think I have a Workaway couple arriving this time next week to help me.

2.   My friend, Jac, bringing me back streaky bacon from England - I was running low.

3.   This orchid, which I bought, reduced in Tesco in 2014, for just £3.99, and which has bloomed every year like this since.