September is my favourite month, without a shadow of a doubt. Firstly because of the weather. Although the summer sunshine tends to linger for much of September, the light becomes more golden and the mornings and evenings are considerably cooler. My favourite weather. It also, of course, heralds the return to school and reminds me of those exciting first days of newness. New teachers, new timetables, crisp new exercise books, new pencil cases and shiny new school shoes. Gleaming freshly waxed parquet flooring in the school hall.
September is a bit of a romantic month in our family; we all chose this month in which to be married. It is actually my folks' wedding anniversary today(I think 43 years). Congratulations Mum and Dad!
I have been birdwatching with my Dad again and Mum joined us yesterday; I think she enjoyed it although Dad has threatened to bring duct tape next time to stop her chatting! I was just happy to see her happily walk the 2.5 mile route without any pain after operations on her feet last year and a knee replacement this year. I happen to quite enjoy her chit-chat too! :)
I am looking forward to watching the changing of seasons at the reserve. In the last few weeks we have already seen the blackberries start to ripen. Apparently, as the blackberries go over the bull finches enjoy feasting on their seeds. The starlings in our garden must have moved on because the tray of mealworms on my conservatory window is still full. Usually the starlings show up like a gang of over-excited teenagers, scrapping and bickering as they eat. I kind of miss them although I do not miss the mess they make.
I am making plans for Autumn and I'll share them with you next time. Plans include the embroideries I am going to stitch, films I am going to watch, wristwarmers that I am going to knit and the cakes I am going to bake. We have taken delivery of some gorgeous 1803 Candles in cosy autumn scents and I've listed some on the website this afternoon. They launched at lunchtime today and there was an exciting flurry of activity as people stocked up. Perfect Pumpkin and Apples & Acorns have been the favourite so far; stock of those is almost depleted. Pop over and have a look - if you haven't tried 1803 before you won't be disappointed. They are by far the best scented candle I have ever come across. The scent fills a room without being overpowering; very mellow and gentle. The fragrance lingers too - we had the bathroom refurbished earlier in the year and one of the workmen told me how lovely and cosy the house always smells. He took a big breath in and said: "ooh your house always smells lovely; like baking. Very homely." He made my day!
Have a happy September and enjoy the slow transition to Autumn, dear cyber friends!
Love
Nicki
xOx
PS The mouse situation has been dealt with. We have two humane traps in the yard and have caught four mice so far. I haven't seen any around lately either. We are used to having mice in the garden at harvest time so it doesn't worry me. The traps were down for a couple of days and we had failed to catch any of the pesky rodents; I was starting to feel concerned that humane traps were not aggressive enough. Eventually, as I popped out to grab a coffee last Friday I announced, in the general direction of the garden, that all mice had better surrender themselves immediately or I was bringing the 'snappy traps' out. Lo and behold upon my return two field mice were ensconced in said plastic boxes, quietly snacking on giant chocolate buttons. I like to think they recognised my non-nonsense tone! Of course I had to summon Andrew from his office (thankfully he is based just down the road and was local that day). He released them in a layby near his office and has felt compelled to release all subsequent mice there "in case they are family and miss each other." Ha! I totally get that.