October...ing

 Hi there folks. Welcome to October...ing. I like this time of year where it is a bit cooler, the seasons change but the nights are still light enough to keep your spirits up.

Arranging - flowers for my table vase challenge. I guess this is where the flower output of my garden drops to the point where I can no longer collect flowers for an all round table vase but I have done pretty well this year. Every day from March 1st until now without a single purchase. The alstroemeria Indian Summer has flowered all year working here with my Bishop of Oxford dahlias, heuchera flower stems and a second flush of lime alchemilla.

Maintaining - my colourful boot collection. I have 5 pairs of long boots in different colours and every year I take them out, give them a waxy polish then I am good to go for coller weather.

Sewing - winter clothes in solid colours. The dress is a lined babycord dress with pintucks down the front. I have wanted to replace a cord dress I had from Boden about 10 years ago and this was almost a straight swap. The trousers are super easy from Newlook6217 and a solid colour means I can wear all of my fairisle knits with them.

Celebrating - my younger girl's birthday. For the first time in 14 years she has not had a handmade cake :( or a party with friends. She went to Harry Potter studios on a school trip the day before and considered that her birthday treat! Why not? she was with her friends and they had a fab time.

Keeping - the front garden border from getting a mess by simply trimming everything lightly. I like to leave a few seed heads for birds and some leaves to protect the crowns of plants from frost because we are high up so we get them early on.

Thinking - about swapping over my pot display on the patio but the flowers just keep coming so I will hang on a bit longer until I plant up bulbs and winter bedding.

The warm weather early on in the month meant I could get one more crop of salad in the troughs. These are winter salads which hopefully can stand the colder weather.

Finishing - up in the greenhouse now with the last of my tomatoes. I dried some herbs for winter cooking and the pepper crop came good in the end after moving the plants into the house. This was the last pick before putting the plants into the compost bin.

Foraging - with an impromptu collection of field mushrooms on a dog walk. They made the most flavourful soup.

Managing - to get quite a few of these pak choi heads. They are a more leafy variety than the ones you see in shops but are fab in stir frys with noodles.

Making - another door wreath to gift to a friend. This one has mostly allium heads and hydrangeas. I loved making this, an hour away from the jobs list.

Dicing - with the traffic in storm Babet. I made it all the way to town for a dental appointment through so many floods only to find I couldn't walk to the actual dental surgery. Drove all the way home then to receive an email from school saying it was closing... yep you guessed it, back to the same town again.

Creating - always makes a mess or is that just me! I had a weekend afternoon catching up on podcasts, scrapbooking our photos and making birthday cards.

Knitting - as the evenings are cooler. It is time to get stuck into some heavy duty knitting. This project is an all consuming fairisle knit by Martin Storey called Asbury. I am loving it. Time for the sleeves now.

Thanks for stopping by. Jo xxx