Goodbye August

It's hard to believe that today is the last day of the month! August has been lovely, we've had some lovely weather, lovely friends visiting us from afar and lovely seasonal observances to enjoy that are unique to August.

August Collage

We've enjoyed watching a family of hedgehogs fatten up for the coming winter, we stayed up late to catch the Perseid's Meteor Shower, We enjoyed Plymouths annual fireworks extravaganza, the long, warm summer days, and gathering in free foods from the hedgerows and trees surrounding us. It's been a good month. 

I feel that I have finished off the month in the way I hope to go on into September, feeling peaceful, content and productive. On Sunday I finished off this adorable little cross stitch which I will finish off in some creative way yet-to-be-determined and add to my autumn decor.

This is a free chart that I have on my Pinterest board if you are interested.

This week we started back at lessons so I spent Bank Holiday Monday putting the final touches to our learning plans. It was a glorious day - actually quite hot so I was glad to sit in the shade of the Hawthorn tree sipping coffee and doing one of the things I love best - planning.

While I was sitting here I heard some rather strange noises coming from the shrubs, upon investigating I found this little fellow tucked away sleeping. Perhaps he was having hedgehog dreams.

And last but not least, I finally got round to making my Apple Bramble Jam yesterday. Oh my goodness! Our family LOVES this jam. All ingredients save the lemons and sugar are gathered from the hedgerows which is half the fun and seems to make the jam taste better.

I used 400g of blackberries, 400g of apples, 500g sugar and the juice of one large lemon. Bring to a gentle rolling boil and let that cook down until the fruit has broken up and you have a thick sticky mixture that has reached setting point. Then ladle into null jars.

My fruit made three and bit jars - three for the grocery cupboard and a bit to enjoy right now on home baked scones. This is my youngest daughters favourite jam, in fact, she will only eat this apple bramble jam 😋.

Now I am super excited because... tomorrow marks the meteorological start of autumn! I am simply giddy with happiness. The autumn equinox (perhaps the official start of autumn) is only 22 days away, there is no doubt that signs of the season are already creeping in. I am completely tempted to crack open all my autumn decor but I will restrain myself and only do so in celebration of the equinox as is our custom. Until then, I'll be content with pinning beautiful and inspirational pins on my 'All Things Autumn' Pinterest board and keeping my hands busy with another autumn inspired cross stitch decoration to add to my autumn decor stash 😀. 

Blessings to you all this lovely last day in August.