August 2023 - A Seasonal Diary
Hello August
August…
What do I have to say? Well I’m still not getting much sleep, but I suppose the babies that sleep through at 7 weeks are the exception, not the rule. We’ve been back and forth to Daddy in the tractor with ice coffees more times than I can count. He of course has brought none of the travel mugs back. Thank you August for not being too hot, my hormones can’t handle it. And thank you for a speedy end to what started as a very slow harvest. My poorly tended Dahlia has bloomed, she had every right not to. I also found a comma basking on the muck heap, what an unglamorous place for such a glamorous insect.
The beginning of the month I was managing to cut the sweet peas every day and make lovely little flower arrangements with the cosmos and my neglected dahlia, not so much now, the veg area has gone to rack and ruin. It was a tough internal debate but I’ve decided to remove that pressure from myself. There’s pumpkins and courgettes still growing but daily watering and anymore seed sewing has been put on the back burner. Maybe next year when tubs and bubs are another year older. At the moment it’s just prioritising daily walks, getting food put on the table for the hungry monsters and keeping the house in some sort of relative order. And of course a little cheeky foraging. Oh let me tell you about the girls…. The cheeky buggers have opted for laying in the hedge rather than the coop so we’ve gone without eggs for a while but we have hunted and found a great blue hoard of about 35 nestled in the field edge.
lets move on to the seasonal abundance of blackberries! Oh my goodness nothing makes me happier than having fingers stained purple and a happy supply of fruit. These lovely buns were made using a recipe shared by Everything Looks Rosie. They were absolutely delicious. We’ll be making these as long as our blackberry supply lasts. We’ve also made 3 jars of blackberry jam and I keep mixing it with Greek yoghurt in little jars to keep in the fridge so when I need a snack I can reach for an unprocessed healthy-ish flavoured yoghurt.
And oh my goodness me the clover, it’s covered my father-in-laws grassed areas this whole month with a sea of beautiful pink Pom poms. There’s also field scabious that’s finally appeared, there’s a patch at the bottom of the airfield and I was worried it had been swallowed by the expanding bramble but it’s popped up finally.
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
-Sylvia platH
August In Paint & Pen
What has August been like for you? Have you seen anything out in Nature that’s made you smile or just peeked your interest? I would love to know, tell me in the comments below...