AUTUMN FIDGETS

Every year at about this time I feel an overwhelming urge to make ready for the winter months ahead and like a squirrel I stuff my pantry with foodstuffs and prepare the house for the dark cold days and nights ahead.

Today this may seem odd and has ,in the past called froth a degree of ridicule from some of my city friends,yet in the country side where I grew up it was and still is quite normal to lay in supplies against possible shortages when the bad weather comes.

Already our cupboards and shelves are bulging with a variety of preserves and there is more still to be made, beans and apple rings blanched and frozen on trays join the gooseberries and black currants,wine berries and strawberry pulp. All will,in time find their way to the table in one guise or another,when bought fruit becomes expensive.

Light summer curtains are taken down and thicker lined ones take their place, fur rugs and thick patchwork quilts replace the fine thin cotton sheets and summer throws.

Of course these are not deployed all at once, but little by little as the weather cools and the nights draw in these winter delights will appear once more.

Vases of wild flowers are replaced by candles and oil lamps. The search for the hot water bottles begins(every year we forget where we put them) all in all it is a busy time for all of us at the cottage.

The pay off..to coin a phrase is that no matter what weather winter throws at us we shall be self sufficient. Should there be power cuts we have the lamps and candles to fall back on,not for us a frantic hunt in the dark for a missing flash light. Last winter when the power failed we had light in all the rooms within a couple of minutes and life carried on uninterrupted.

Most people buy charcoal during the summer months,we begin to hoard the stuff in the autumn, to be used if the gas and the electricity fail at the same time.

I have the means to cook out of doors on an open fire or in a brick oven,it works well, I have used these things often.

I can guarantee that the very people who crack wise over my squirrelling tendencies will be the first to appear on my doorstep to “borrow” a candle,some paraffin,or some other scarce commodity,it is always so.

By the time lovely autumn has flung her brilliant beauty in to the wind and fingers of frost begin to appear on the glass we shall be snug and warm and ready. For whatever winter has in store,we have our own stores to fall back on while we wait the return of spring.