Autumn, a time for crisp walks, admiring the beautiful changing landscape, kicking leaves and home to Mum’s soup.

We’ve had a right mixed bag of weather recently; it was shorts & t shirt for an autumn day at Chatsworth, a week later it was waterproofs for scout camp and yesterday it was wellies for a muddy walk around a local reservoir.

Our Garden

I’ve been really busy with scout camp, school tests & homework and walking Buddy, that I haven’t done much in the garden recently.

harvesting honesty seeds

My Dad’s done lots of cutting back and winter prep. The steps get really slippy in autumn and need a good scrub, so there’s always jobs like that to do. I did plant some allium bulbs in the front yard garden though and I harvested the paper-like seeds from the honesty plant. Never done that before, so I’ll have to look into how to store & dry them.

Autumn at Chatsworth

There’s no place I’d rather be at autumn than Chatsworth; it’s one of my fav places anyway, but in this season it’s just spectacular.

We did our usual route taking in the Emperor’s Fountain, Grotto, Maze, Rockery, Weeping Willow, Cascade and then on to the Kitchen Garden, which always looks pretty incredible at this time of year. There’s a new area called Arcadia, which I look forward to seeing develop over the years.

Inspiring others

I’ve had some wonderful comments via social media and they really encourage me to know, that I’m doing something right.

Via Twitter – ‘FP of the Great Forest of Surrey’ said I’d inspired her to ‘take on half a plot to grow veggies and to help her feel calm.’

Whilst Hilary commented on my blog saying, “you’ve certainly challenged & altered my gardening habits to the benefit of our remarkable planet”

Wow – how cool is that

The Big Soup Share

I’ll be getting ready for the RHS Big Soup Share with my friends from Young Operation Farm. We’re aiming to make loads of different types of harvest soup, soda bread, cupcakes made with veggies and we’ve got the apple press coming so everyone can slurp some fresh apple juice.

Climate crisis

It’s great to see young people all over the world continuing to strike and protest about the climate crisis. But it certainly divides opinion. I’ve read lots of negative posts on social media and the anger I feel only fuels my passion to continue to fight for what I believe in. Sometimes, I believe people underestimate us  kids, saying we are ‘double-barrelled activists’, who are ‘smug, irritating and disruptive’, to protest and strike, but I assure you, we are none of these, we are passionate about the protection of our precious planet and its wonderful wildlife.

‘In an endless universe where life is so rare, there’s a precious planet we wild things share. It’s a place of wonder, filled with colourful lands, and its future health rests in our powerful hands’

The Bumblebee Conservation Trust

It’s a short blog today, as I’m juggling writing this and a speech for The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s AGM, where I’m a guest speaker – buzzin’ about being asked!

My speech, titled, ‘For the love of gardening’, will be about my gardening journey, my passions and what I think about the Trust’s Bee Kind Tool. The tool helps you to discover how bee-friendly your garden is and tips on how to improve it.

Right got to go, homework to do, a dog to walk and speeches to write; hope you’re getting out, kicking leaves, collecting conkers and taking in the breathtaking autumn colours.