Autumnal happenings

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 It is time for our short-sleeved shirts again. Not because of Covid jabs or flu jabs but because we have had texts saying

‘From 1st September 75- to 79-year-olds will be eligible for a free vaccine to protect against RSV…’

If you are like me, you have never heard of RSV, I have never been worried about it because I did not know of its existence. Respiratory Syncytial Virus is apparently quite common in children and older people and is like the common cold but worse. So here we are getting ready to go to the surgery to be injected against a disease we have never heard of. The Government website tells us that it can be a serious disease for our age group, so we are guarding against it.

And how do you guard against smells in your kitchen? Mr T has been making damson chutney and the tangy smell wafts up to my study. It will soon disappear and it is worth it because we have five jars waiting for the winter months when we will be glad of the chutneys delicious taste with cold meat.

Our fruit has been good this year despite (or because of) the cool summer. The fruit trees are dripping with apples and some are ready for eating now. After breakfast I wander down to a seat in the orchard and pick myself a big rosy apple to eat. The wasps have not been around much this month so that is another bonus for our fruit.

The hedgehogs are around though. They have not been in or garden for several years, but we saw one a week or two ago eating the fallen apples. It was a big adult and yesterday we saw another one. This was a smaller juvenile and they seem to be taking refuge under our store shed this year, but I can remember coming across one hibernating in the tangled mass of our pampas grass.

Pampas used to be very fashionable in the centre of people’s lawns and every year the tradition was that you burnt them down after the growing season. Mine is just beginning to show its glorious white plumes. The pampas flowers in our colder months.

The young hedgehog we saw recently was feeding under our bird table.  We do not feed the birds in the summer months as there is plenty to eat here but now, we look forward to seeing them at our bird table. So far, we have seen blue tits, great tits and the robin. I often hear the woodpecker; it has not yet appeared on the bird table. But It will turn up like the inevitable autumn jabs.

 (Taken from my column in the Shropshire Star)

Our pampas grass is just beginning to show its glorious plumes

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