Autumnal colours, vegetables, fruit and Photography

Dappled autumn colour in the hospital grounds

Parental stress management as Ben went in for his operation

An extra day off this Wednesday so I could take Ben to hospital for the operation on his wrist, we arrived just before 10 am and he was taken not long after. So started a long wait for a stressed mum, it doesn't matter what age they are you still worry. I had coffee and cake and walk around the hospital grounds enjoying the autumn colour for a while until I was sure he wasn't going to be sent back out. I went along to the nursery to make sure all was ok there, had a coffee and then headed home. It's amazing what you can get done when a few extra hours present themselves and you need to keep occupied! I got the monster ironing done and quite a few other household tasks out the way. David was away working and Dan was at Granny's so I had dinner on my own before dozing off on the sofa. The call to say Ben was ready to come home finally came just after 6pm. He has his wrist in a plaster with a screw to pull the bones together and a bone graft to fill in the gap! Ouch.

Autumn means kicking through leaves, yeh!

Back to normal, or as normal gets in this house on Thursday and back to the nursery to catch up. First things first though, the cafe flowers. Cut flowers from the gardens are beginning to run out and I am hoping to get another week or two out of them before switching to winter evergreens and berries. The rest of Thursday and most of Friday was spent weeding in the stock beds, making the most of the dry and reasonably warm weather. This will be the last weed of this year and I won't do anymore with the stock beds until after the new year. Friday started with an emergency appointment at the dentist for the agonising toothache after root removal last week. I now have a course of antibiotics to take to deal with an infection. Vets, doctors, dentist, hospitals, it's beginning to get a bit mad.

This weeks cafe flowers

The Aronias in the car park are stunning in their autumn colour

Lots of colourful squashes in the veg porch of the Whitmuir farm shop

Autumn reflections in the Whitmuir pond

Lots of colour in the sales area to entice customers

An unexpected combination with Aster 'Monte Casino' which will flower
into November and a second flush of Sanguisorba working well together

Saturday and Sunday arrived with David feeling ill with a nasty cold, so he sat in the super heated office doing business planning for next year while I weeded and we chatted about all the things we want to achieve at Quercus in 2017. We are both looking forward to some time off over winter as both businesses wind down for the end of the season, it's been very busy for both but very rewarding too. Saturday evening saw us in Edinburgh for David's company end of season dinner with his survey team. We chose to go to Cosmo again as there is plenty choice for all tastes, especially puddings, I like puddings!

I have desserts down to a fine art

Rainy Edinburgh nights

Autumn colour on the farm, the perfect place to visit on a lovely autumn day

David's lurgy was not improving and he's was feeling quite rough, but managed to give me a help to get both cats to the vet for the their second round of jags on Monday. I also took the opportunity of being in Lanark to do errands to the charity shop, banks and choose reading glasses! Trauma, but it did cheer David up watching me try them on. Once home it was the usual housecleaning chores and baking. This week I kept it seasonal with apple and custard cake and fruit and nut flapjacks. They are much appreciated by everyone.

Makings of apple and custard cake

Everyone approved of this tasty autumn cake

Very easy to make fruit and nut flapjacks

The end result which is quite impressive as whenever I've made flapjacks before they have crumbled

It's not unusual for a small fuzzy doglet to get in the way of a photo shoot

Messing around with squashes in the garden

Miscanthus 'Dreadlocks' in the front garden with great autumn colour

It was a lovely sunny clear day on Tuesday as I took eldest back to his flat, he is adamant he can cope on his own, despite his arm and leg and is desperate to be back in his own space which I can understand. The one and half hour journey there didn't seem so long in the sun and with all the lovely autumn colours on the trees. I bought him a couple of weeks worth of food and lunch then we went to his flat. All was well there, so I left him to get on with things and headed home. I've done more driving in the last week than in a long time, not bad thing for me or the car. David managed to find the energy to go out on our night out at the Botanic lights event in Edinburgh Botanic gardens. The weather was perfect, not too cold, dry and still. This is the second year we've done this and it didn't disappoint again.

I'll leave you with some of my photos from the evening, I hope you are having a healthier week than we are having in this house, take care.