Autumn magic
It’s Halloween and we’ve put the clock back and it feels as if autumn is really here.
It’s quite magical really when you get used to the idea that summer is really over. I’m practically drowning in jams and chutneys and I’ve cooked a bird pudding from suet and bread and well – anything you think birds will eat.
Then I got a hollow log with holes drilled in and stuffed it full of the lumpy doughy mixture. And when it was hung out on a tree hey presto the birds appeared and popped into the holes and eat the food.
Another thing I have done is to weigh my pumpkin – in the end it weighed 15 Kg not a prize winner but I’m proud of it none the less. You see last year I grew one on the top of our compost heap. My Dad always said that when he was young that’s where they grew huge marrows – just chucked them on the compost heap and they blew up like tyres. So I reasoned that pumpkins would do the same. No such luck!
My last year’s pumpkin sat high and dry on our heap. It dried and died before autumn came. So this year I had the brilliant idea of growing a pumpkin plant at the bottom of the compost heap. There it would be shaded and it would get all the good juice from the rotting compost. And hey presto it worked! As if by magic the pumpkin began to swell and swell, then it began to turn orange and we cut it.
It’s quite magical really when you get used to the idea that summer is really over. I’m practically drowning in jams and chutneys and I’ve cooked a bird pudding from suet and bread and well – anything you think birds will eat.
Then I got a hollow log with holes drilled in and stuffed it full of the lumpy doughy mixture. And when it was hung out on a tree hey presto the birds appeared and popped into the holes and eat the food.
Another thing I have done is to weigh my pumpkin – in the end it weighed 15 Kg not a prize winner but I’m proud of it none the less. You see last year I grew one on the top of our compost heap. My Dad always said that when he was young that’s where they grew huge marrows – just chucked them on the compost heap and they blew up like tyres. So I reasoned that pumpkins would do the same. No such luck!
My last year’s pumpkin sat high and dry on our heap. It dried and died before autumn came. So this year I had the brilliant idea of growing a pumpkin plant at the bottom of the compost heap. There it would be shaded and it would get all the good juice from the rotting compost. And hey presto it worked! As if by magic the pumpkin began to swell and swell, then it began to turn orange and we cut it.
And now we have scooped it out and drilled holes in it – using the same drill we used for the bird feeder. The drill went through the pumpkin like butter slurping and sucking as it went leaving a holey pattern.
We’ve put a candle in it and now it is standing on a chair at our front gate using its magic to ward off any dangers on this special autumn night which is All Hallows eve when anything could happen – but it won’t for us because we have our pumpkin to protect us.
So I am sitting here all safe and sound eating delicious roasted pumpkin seeds while outside the wind whistles and the rain lashes. And who knows when the candle goes out, one of our garden birds might pop through one of the holes in the pumpkin and take shelter there for the night and he may even have a peck at a seed or two that got have left behind. ‘This is magic,’ he will think as he snuggles up. Thank goodness for Halloween!
.HEIC)
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