Wet and windy.

It's wet and windy outside and I am tucked up here in bed. The nights are getting longer, where a little while ago it would have been bright and sunny by now it is still very dark. I am having trouble finding the motivation to get up as early as I would like. To do as much as I want to do each day. Is this a bad thing or is it's natures way? 

The garden and the allotment are showing signs of winding down. These beautiful seed heads of the lantern  clematis look like little old men with scruff haircuts. The wild form of clematis, in the UK, is called old man's beard. 

The pears are ripening, it going to be a bumper crop this year, enough to make pear chutney. I'm really enjoying the preserving, always on the look out for something to bottle. Pampa is now getting paranoid about what to do with any jar or bottle as it is emptied. Should he put it in the re-cycling bin or do I want to fill it with something else. 

The pears aren't the only autumn bounty the garden has to offer, these sweetcorn promise a good feed as do the butternut squash. We actually eat one of these in the week but I don't think it was as nice as a fully mature one. I did pick the first ever melon I have grown but we are ripening it off on the kitchen windowsill for a while yet. 

There is still a fair bit of summer still around, like these beautiful calendula. I really must read up on making balm for sprains and bruises.

It's light at last and I must be up and away. The washing needs hang on the rack indoors today, we need bread and a cake for weekend tea. I have beetroot to bottle and a shopping list to make. I also have a parcel to post but no address as yet to send it. I might do a little sewing this afternoon as I don't think it is going to be allotment weather.