I left the pumpkins as long as I could.

Well, I picked the home garden squashes 21st October 2017. I can't say that they amounted to much of anything thanks to the shade cast by next doors tree.  He has promised to cut the tree back quite a bit over the winter but I've mostly lost interest. We're hoping to move house next year. 

If I remember correctly I have two different types of squash in the picture and obviously some that aren't even old enough to be considered squash, but I'll cook with them anyway. I think they've done better than the allotment squash though as we barely even got leaves with those.

I did however get to buy something I've wanted to try for absolutely ages. Red bean Mochi. :) I bought it from an Asian supermarket near Nottingham along with some other stuff. (noodles, miso, radish etc)

Update: I have tried the mochi and I liked it. It's got a very subtle taste the red bean paste is mildly sweet and once you get over the texture (which is a little odd) It's nice. 8/10 :)  

Wind swept chooks

The wood chip that we added to the run about a month ago is really darkening and is starting to rot down now that the wet weather has arrived.

 This is dippy. We got home a little after dark last night after visiting my dad to watch the BFG and when I went to put the chickens to bed I could not find her.  I could hear some worried clucking around the compost pile but I just couldn't find her.

 Eventually when I moved a chicken fence that I'd saved to enlarge the compost, I saw her, right at the bottom of the compost pile, right in the corner. I climbed in and ferried her out and back to her coop. The OH thought I looked like a compost pile myself when I came back into the house. 

The babies are really happy with the big chickens now, although they still like to stick together. 

I bought them their own little coop to hide in if they need it. Although it's been dippy laying her eggs in it every day that's been giving it its most use.

 Poor Yellow is too fat to fit through the door very easily.

This is a collection of nasturtium and mashua. The nasturtium has the larger orange flowers and the mashua the small yellow trumpets and smaller leaves. 

I'm really happy with how well the Mashua has grown.

Lancashire.

I've been home from my holiday for about a week now but this is the first minute I've really had to write about it. We had a really, really lovely time. Lancashire is a really beautiful county. We followed the lives of the Pendle witches. We stayed at Barley, a tiny and beautiful village in sight of Pendle hill. We visited the Pendle Heritage Centre in Barrowford on the first day, very soon after we arrived at our tiny but perfect little apartment. We investigated Barley and its wonderful pub The Pendle Inn. I lost many a game of pool in that building. :) 

The air in Barley is so beautifully clean that I came home feeling fabulous. You can see all of the moss that grows on their walls. (a sure sign of clean air)

There was lots of running water.

After we visited the heritage museum we visited Lancaster city and the castle where the poor Pendle witches were it is alleged held and tried. Although we only spent three hours in the city (we bought a three hour parking ticket) I feel like we saw quite a lot. The castle tour was great fun :D The OH got locked in a cell and the tour guide was very witty and well informed about the history of the castle and of England in general. 

We visited another small museum in the city centre which was full of interesting facts and very friendly staff, although unfortunately I've forgotten the name of the museum. The city of Lancaster itself is beautiful and very nice to walk around, I have to say that I was happy to find a place that was flat in a county of very steep inclines. I even managed to scoff a quick pub meal before running for the car before our parking ticket ran out. 

Although its hard to tell in the photo, this is the extremely beautiful view we had from our little apartment window. That is the start of Pendle Hill. It was such a quiet, peaceful and wonderfully restful place. I truly loved it, and I shall hopefully be going back some day.