The most important thing you can do in October
My lovely,
Just a little reminder that now is the perfect time to be starting your sweet peas. I hope you kept some seed from this year’s plants but if you didn’t, both the UK and the USA Gather seed shops are open and full of some gorgeous varieties. And the one very thin silver lining in this sky full of clouds is that the dollar is very strong at the moment, and the £10 membership to Gather is an absolute steal if you are in the States.
Wherever you are in the world, you don't just get access to the shop with the membership; you get all the guides, all the inspiration, and all the encouragement you could ever need to grow the garden of your dreams from seed…
Monday 26 September
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I feel like I have never noticed dogwood before. Not like this year. The colours are deep and rich; the reds are almost black in places and whole sections of hedgerows glow scarlet. I collect bunches with berries from the sloe hedges in the back field. The fields have just had their crop of maize harvested and managing sharp snips, bundles of branches and three dogs who want to break free and eat corn cobs was less peacefully bucolic as I have tried to make it sound.
Tuesday 27 September
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An unexpected and unplanned lunch in Bath. A delicious and delightful treat in the middle of a busy week. The most beautiful restaurant, Oak, and we ate under a cloud of honesty and Limonium. I always forget how lovely Bath is and in the autumn sunshine, the honey-coloured stone positively glowed.
Wednesday 28 September
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I’ve been looking for some urns for a while. Many years ago, when I still did weddings, I had big fibreglass ones which I loved but they have not stood the test of time. A huge box arrives today, with three wonderful cast-iron earns. I didn’t need three (who does?) but they came as a job lot on Facebook Marketplace and I just couldn’t refuse.
I slightly wish I had never discovered Facebook Marketplace. Without any warning at all, I have become a seeker and collector of Ercol, round backed kitchen chairs. I really didn’t see that one coming.
Thursday 29 September
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And once I had urns, all I needed was flowers. The cornus from earlier in the week was mixed with dahlias in bright, jewel colours, with smoky fennel, and the shorter branches of scarlet rose hips. I have my eye on the long cables of rosehips growing wild around the village but I’m saving those the most spectacular autumn wreath.
Friday 30 September
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A storm was forecast and, right on time, it arrives. A bright morning gives way to a blustery afternoon. The leaden sky pours rain so hard that it drips down the chimney and rushes along the lane. Irish setters, contrary to their origins, are fair-weather dogs. They took one look at the downpour and put themselves back on the sofa. I make them go out anyway, choosing to walk on the sheltered side of the hedges. The valley slopes in such a way that rain blows horizontally across the back fields, under coats and under hats. Walking in the lee of the hedge is the difference between getting wet and getting soaked.
Saturday 1 October
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After the deluge, the morning dawns clear and bright. I cross the border into Devon (or is it Dorset?) to collect metal dustbins from a scrap metal merchant who has a barn of treasures in the middle of nowhere*. Hugo and I drive down tiny lanes, with both sides of the Land Rover touching the hedges. The elder is turning. Sharp yellows, rich reds, and even tones of chocolate, dotted in the still-green hedgerows. This window of such colour is fleeting, or possibly I have never worked out how to condition elder well enough to keep the leaves on. But some of the best things in life are fleeting, are they not? Or maybe that is what photography is for.
*Predictably enough, I found him on Facebook Marketplace… I nearly came home with a huge brass shower head and taps that had been pulled out of an old rectory.
Sunday 2 October
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Seasons soften and merge into one another, imperceptibly and inexorably. However, this morning marks the very sharp change from Gather· Harvest (August & September) to Gather· Autumn (October & November).
The Gather website is now full of autumnal images, autumnal films (my favourite being India Hurst’s film of her making a seasonal bowl of flowers) and the release of a new seasonal journal.