September Song

September as seen from my back door step on Saturday morning.  I had thought to write a post about how September still means new beginnings to me despite it being more than half a century (can that be possible?!) since I last went back to school.  But  I find that I have written the post before and even the photo is almost the same see September Time published on 4 September 2013 and I even had a list of things I hoped to achieve with the new start!  Much the same as I'd thought of saying now! So rather than do that old lady thing of repeating myself I thought you might like to come for a Sunday saunter with me instead this year? 

After lunch yesterday I gathered together some plastic boxes and carrier bags and we set off to look for some hedgerow fruits.  We parked the car near the church in West Coker - it's only a couple of miles from our house and in fact we are in the parish of West Coker,only just since the boundary is at our gateway - and set off to walk to the Ridge one of my favourite spots near here.  Walking to West Coker would be a dangerous undertaking since there is no verge let alone a footpath and the route is along the A30 which is a busy main road which is why we took the car.  

Through the village and across the main road, up a little lane where we saw grapes hanging in bunches over the wall but didn't take any of those of course.  Now through the gate and along the path we climbed towards the Ridge.  Not many blackberries to be found along the pathway but these leaves caught my attention aren't they pretty?

Onwards and upwards to the Ridge with views in both directions.

 Someone was having a bad hair day obviously!  But very friendly and curious.

A couple of hours later I returned home with enough blackberries, elderberries, sloes, rosehips, haws and crab apples to make some Hedgerow Spread along with this little posy which is sitting on my kitchen window sill in a vintage paste pot.

It was a good job we went yesterday as today it's been pouring with rain.

I thought these two pictures went well with today's theme.  They were given to me over 50 years ago by my mother's uncle who thought I might like them.  They were free prints with Amateur Gardener and the blackberry one is dated September 1935 so is exactly 80 years old.  This apple one is about the same vintage but the exact date doesn't show now it's been framed.

How they survived 60 years of being moved about I don't know nor why it's taken me this long to get them framed but now they hang in my kitchen where I can see them and appreciate them and be reminded of the many trips my mother and I made to visit the old man who gave them to me back in the 1950s.