The Swenglish Home

This year I'm saying it with...pears.

Autumn is here. The rain and the winds do not just whisper their seasonal message, they howl it across the fields, even though the temperature does its best to defy the September powers. Working from home, I find myself reaching for a thicker jumper or a blanket for my feet. But that is just our old stone house and my autumnal mind playing tricks on me... As I go to pick the boys up from school, I sweat buckets under too many layers (no, it's not my age!) and raise an eyebrow when I discover that the thermometer says 19 degrees...! 

But I am not fooled that easily. It is September and it is autumn. And so it was that today, in between several different work urgencies (all doing their best to out-howl each other and the weather screamers), I just had to greet autumn.

Properly. 

With any potential Scandinavian minimalist heritage thrown out the window, I looked around to see how I could welcome the new season into our garden along the lines of "More is More"... Last year I did it with apples, this year the bowl of pears from a kind neighbour was emptied into one of my beloved wooden trays...

... the grey day called out for some cosy candles...

A courgette from the garden, having met the same rejected fate as the peas 

in an earlier blog post, was invited to spread a little light and love...

(Last year's play with courgettes can be found here.)

Some new plants, replacing the brown, dry, sad contents 

of the pots that used to boast colourful summer plants...

Decorative cabbage - a clear favourite this time of the year, and, incidentally, 

the only type of cabbage that you will ever catch me trying to befriend...

Forever recycling twigs here and there...

... and for those of you who may have been holding your breath, wondering about the pea heart cliff hanger... What could have happened to it? Is it still "alive"? Well, a little dryer, a little shrunk, but there they are, the green little fellows, for a wee while longer."It is hip to be square"... 

After having carved a heart shape in the courgette, I found myself left with - surprise, surprise - a heart-shaped green heart. We could not let a splendid opportunity to spread some more green love go to waste, now could we?! Looking around, my eyes fell on a plain pot that seemed to request a little pimping...

If these walnuts ever wanted to appear at a costume party dressed as lime, 

I have no doubt they would bring home the "Best Look-Alike Award" of the evening. 

What do you think?

Another lovely plant to brighten the darker days is this one, whose English name I am not familiar with, but whose Swedish name I think is so fabulous: Love herb. Is not the name itself reason enough to want to surround oneself with a whole field of them?!

Thank you, 

dear new readers and old, 

anonymous readers and known, 

for your kind words and inspiring comments. 

I bow humbly and save all your words in special mental drawer, 

one that I can pull out on an unusually cloudy day 

and just drink all the goodness of your words, again and again. 

Thank you.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

Helena