Lots of wonderful things on this thread! Opera, musicals, NT, RHS, aurora's, upcoming festivities, to note just a few.
I'm finding it hard to keep up, as running so far behind on everything here, but so is the weather and consequently harvesting of what's available.
We're finally getting more autumnal weather and leaves dropping, but simultaneously I still have late carrots in the ground, the apple trees are continuing happily, and 'wild' lemon and avocado trees are still at it and producing full size fruit, (Waitrose standard as it's referred to here) which I don't remember ever being the case in October before.
Also blue berries, bilberries and tomatoes are still ongoing, and yet we also have the first crop of sweet chestnuts, which means an urgent need for more jars to preserve them for later autumn and Christmas.
(They go in just about everything here, and I'm hoping to try out making brandied chestnut and cream ravioli as something special but relatively cheap, later on.)
We've also got a sudden flurry of ladybirds of all patterns, colors, sizes and a variety of spot numbers, as well as a late gatekeeper butterflies and a comma the other day, after me bemoaning the lack of them. All attracted to buddleia, hebes and rosemary, that I've been working to keep flowering, for bees and other nectar seekers.
@RainbowZebraWarrior I read your hives disaster with initially sadness, then growing alarm for their residents, and am so very happy to hear your bees have survived it all. They do work so hard.
Love that the seed advent calendar is for Shelter.
@Piletka That's a beautiful and tasty looking borsh.
@CrushingOnRubies good news to hear DP's brought back sausage from France. NVN, but I'm hoping to do a day trip and that cheese might be allowed back, if it's personal consumption...
Good luck to the @brave souls sorting out new kitchens. (ours is NVN, a working kitchen, falling apart well past it!)
Week in pictures - almost everything (with the exception of pecan nuts, sugar, a little plain flour and baking soda, to make chestnut flour un-stogy, and a some eggs from the chickens) is from the garden, pots, or foraged, which is making stretched finances feel a bit more comfortable.
If anyone has ideas for how to preserve a continuing apple glut beyond cider, chutney, jelly, and jam, preferably that can go into meals rather than desserts, I'd love inspiration. Am running out of ideas.
Laid lots down in sand boxes, no room in the freezer, but they keep coming and seem about to be the this years big staple foodstuff.