the running wave

Couldn't resist this happy little halloween cat!

In my new found tradition of posting A Vase on Monday, I thought I would do one for Halloween as well.  As everything seems to turn orange during October, in the lead up to the pumpkin and cobwebbed world of All Hallows, I thought I would use nasturtiums in my jazzy Venezuelan ceramic bottle! To be honest, the world is so full of trickery, spooks and general ghastliness that I think Halloween ghouls will pale into insignificance this evening, but I hope you enjoy the pumpkin soup, apple bobbing and any other treats that may come your way today!

... it's cold this morning!  A significant frost across the golf course, a veneer of ice on one of the ponds (that was a surprise), and a lovely clear blue sky ahead of a glorious sunny morning.  Not a bad way to start the week.

Small is beautiful, and in the case of my vase this week, small is very beautiful because it involves the tiniest of wild flowers.  I love all the flowers in my garden, but even more I love wild flowers.  I was walking in a local field last week and saw the dainty field pansy (better known to me as heartsease) growing between the lines of harvested corn.  Any day now that field will be ploughed up and all those little beauties will be buried under heavy clods of earth, so to keep their sweet kitten faces alive, they are in my vase this Monday.  There is also herb-robert, white clover, common fumitory, a low-growing umbelliferae which I can't specifically identify, and shepherd's purse with its heart-shaped seed pods.   To give the arrangement a sense of scale, so that you can see how dainty these flowers are, I have put a creamy yellow daisy from the garden alongside in the first photo. We spend so much time and money on the plants we grow in our gardens that the wild varie

but, unlike some in the UK, we did not have snow this morning!  And I should hope not.  It's only October after all!  We have had some beautiful sunshine today so T, T and I went for a walk round our favourite field this afternoon.  It takes an hour (it is a very big field) and there is always something for all of us to enjoy.  Deer poo doesn't hold quite the same appeal to me as it does for the dogs, but I find plenty of other things to ring my bell. We had a real autumn walk, crunching our way through fallen leaves, enjoying the colours in the ageing blackberry leaves, and the clean fresh lines of the winter wheat.

We've had some cracking skyscapes over the past week.  Beautiful sunrises and stunning sunsets. Yesterday morning, around 7.45 am, I came out to see the moon sinking in a pink and grey sky (Queensferry Crossing bridge just visible on the left hand side of the photo), a lavender sky across the Firth of Forth, and looking in the other direction, the sunrise. And lastly, the sky about ten minutes ago.

The only possible justification I have for using the word 'Christmas' in October is to announce that I made our Christmas cake today!  It's come out rather well - looks as though it might be slightly squidgy in the middle, which is perfect for me!  I don't enjoy dry food. Another sign that preparations are in hand can be seen here!

The journey home from any happy holiday is always bitter sweet.  Bitter because the holiday is at an end, sweet because there is no place like home!  There is a bonus for us on our journey home from Colonsay because it is so beautiful!  Two and a half hours on the sea, sailing between Hebridean islands and glorious west of Scotland coastline, and then a scenic three hour road trip from Oban right across the country to our home on the east coast.  Here is the Calmac ferry coming to pick us up, and then a last look as we move away from the island.   Our two sea dogs have become seasoned travellers on the ferry and I think they quite enjoy the sea air! The beautiful island of Mull is on the port side of the ferry for most of the trip to Oban.  Once on the road home, we stopped for a few minutes to give the dogs a brief walk.  The late afternoon sunshine picked up the autumn colours through the trees and grasses, bringing our holiday to a gentle and mellow close.

I can't possibly keep all the photos I take on my laptop.  The poor thing is groaning under the weight of them all.  I can, however, post some of them here to have them on record of a happy holiday, and I can return to them whenever I want, and delete them from iPhoto!  Apart from pleasing me from time to time, I hope they please visitors to the running wave as well.   Here is a last collection of Colonsay photos with a brief notes to explain one or two things, so that they are not completely random! I went to a foraging and cooking session, as part of the Food and Drink Festival.  It was held in the kitchen of Colonsay House, and we ventured out into the autumnal garden, in the pouring rain, to see what was still foragable.  The pods in the photo above are not edible, but rather decorative.  They are from the very fragrant white wisteria which grows over a covered area on the terrace.  The outer shell is an almond green with the texture of velvet.  A very lovely thing. We