The Geese are back in town! – Autumn is around the corner!

I am now awakened regularly by loud honking first thing in the morning. Not from a car, but because the geese are back in town!

I’m not at all annoyed, I love hearing them and lie there smiling.

They fly over the house three or four times each morning; I never know if it’s the same flock going round and around or if it’s three or four different flocks.

The Canada geese return to us each year in late August, and it starts with just a handful. You’re suddenly aware of that distinctive honking sound, and sure enough there’s a small ‘V’ formation in the sky.

By mid-September though, there are huge numbers around. You can even hear them from inside the house with the windows closed.

Local Ponds

We are so lucky to have ponds around the area, which attract the geese and other water loving birds. There’s nothing more relaxing than being near to water, especially if you remember to take a bag of oats to feed the birds.

Mallard duck

One of the permanent residents at our local pond are the Mallard ducks. It’s a regular occurrence to have to stop my car on my way to work, whilst they cross the road, especially when they have ducklings.

As someone that’s always on the last minute, this should make me grumpy, but how could it!

Moorhens

Other more comical residents are Moorhens. They have the funniest little run, with their heads jutting out low in front of them, going in and out. They resemble a cartoon character!

Mandarin Duck

This year was the second time since moving here, that we were treated to the arrival of the very exotic looking Mandarin Duck, with his rather plain brown partner.

As he strutted his stuff around the village pond like a peacock, us humans flocked to take his picture. Meantime the local wildlife was quite unimpressed!

Black Headed Gull

We have Black Headed Gull’s, seen here in its rather striking winter plumage. They are really noisy and always squabbling over food.

Geese = The coming of Autumn

The arrival of the geese is not strictly a gardening story, but it’s one of those seasonal events that define the year, like the bulbs coming up in March.

As those first few arrive late on in August each year, I have mixed feelings. The biggest part of me feels happy to see them, it means everything’s normal in the world – despite the fact that it really hasn’t been for the last two and a half years.

The other part of me knows that it signifies summer coming to an end, and so an inevitable slide into autumn – my least favourite season.
I know it’s all gorgeous blazing leaf colours, but to me it’s the season of decay, as the garden dies back.

But enough of all that! I’m getting ahead of myself, the garden’s still looking lovely. We have had exceptional weather, despite being too hot to sit out at times – who would ever believe that that would be the case in Britain?
It’s been wonderful to be outside so much, especially all the Al fresco eating.

There is still much colour from the late summer flowers. They seem to have had a new lease of life now that they’ve finally had a good drink.

Asters, Chrysanthemum, Salvia, Sedum and Cosmos

The sunflowers are finally coming out, after seeding themselves. They’ve been really late this year.

September’s Bounty

September, continues to bring in the food bounty too!

Turn your back on the courgette plant for a couple of days and you have marrows! Apart from grating it into various cakes, including cherry cake and making our vegetable lasagne. We now have lots of containers of roasted courgette in the freezer to keep us going into winter.

The autumn fruiting raspberries ‘Polka’ have been a sensation!
My morning starts by sorting out the coffee machine, before heading off outside to open the greenhouse. Then checking if anything’s in need of water, before filling yet another container with raspberries for breakfast.

This has now been going on since mid July when they started producing fruit.
In the freezer we have raspberry cake made with rhubarb, courgettes and more recently pears. We also have raspberry and apple crumble, made using the only early apple we grow ‘discovery’.

The pear harvest has taken place in the last month. Unlike apples, pears don’t ripen on the tree, they have to be picked and brought inside to ripen. Unfortunately they all tend to ripen within a couple of weeks, and once ripe they do not store.

That can only mean one thing, more cakes! A made a couple of pear and raspberry cakes which you can click the link and get the recipe for. The next batch to ripen went into an extra-large pear and raspberry crumble, so the freezers are getting rather full now!

In those couple of weeks though, we had the great treat of eating a few. There truly is nothing like a perfectly ripened pear, juice running through your fingers as you peel it and down your chin when you eat it, divine!