Seekers
This has to be the time of year when we go out collecting the most: feathers, hazels, conkers, blackberries. I bring seed heads and rosehips indoors all the time (and usually run out of space on the dresser/kitchen table/mantel/windowsills).
But the thing I like to look for most (but not touch - hallucinogens + childcare would be far too much of a challenge) is the fly agaric, that children’s storybook red, spotted mushroom which can be elusive and likes to grow under birches (incidentally, my favourite tree). We do get them up here if you know where to go. And Sunday marked a year to the day since we last came across them. The weather has been warm - hot at times - and it was bright and breezy so perfect for an afternoon walk into the woods.
PS - that’s our house in the picture above. Who wouldn’t want to buy it? ;) The cat is just out of view, following us up the track as he tends to do (he also waits there for us to come back and expects to be carried home again).
There are all kinds of toadstools and mushrooms around in September, from huge to tiny, brightly hued to shyly camouflaged amongst the fallen leaves. The colours of the Skye landscape are at their best right now too: faded from their high summer vivacity to more muted shades which sit together companionably.
We do this walk a lot. In the early autumn we find a lot of big woolly caterpillars along the way. Joe’s learned not to pick them up as they can irritate your skin, so they’re just for admiring from a safe distance. Also prickly: the gorse, which grows along the path edges and bites at your legs as you pass.
And yes, the fly agarics were there. In virtually the same spots as last year. The newest ones didn’t look quite real: rubbery, and presented in Glorious Technicolour. More like stage props for a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or maybe a woodland pantomime. But it was exciting to find little groups of them here and there amongst the trees. Further along, there were more growing down steep shady banks where the ground is covered in moss.
Hopefully they’ll be around for a few more days - I’d like to go and take another look.
Things are rumbling along in the background as far as the house is concerned. It is an anxious time as you’re constantly aware it’s a fragile process, at risk of falling through at any time. So we just keep on with our day to day activities and there are plenty to keep us occupied.
Of course, as I’m writing this the new Covid measures have been announced. Here in Scotland that means, amongst other things, that we can no longer visit our friends unless we’re outdoors. So Sunday lunch is cancelled, as is a planned catch up I had arranged for Friday. It will be interesting to see how it goes as the weather gets colder and wetter, and the days shorter. I suspect there will be a lot of people feeling very isolated.
But we have books and films (Joe’s very into Harry Potter at the moment), games and cooking and baking. We sometimes light the stove in the outbuilding and potter about in the garden, and take walks locally and further afield. I think the biggest worry for some was the prospect of not being able to travel anywhere, but that seems to have been avoided for now.
In other news, work is busy and I’m really enjoying it. We’re currently expanding the shop floor area and putting together plans and orders for Christmas food, hampers and things for the house as well as bath products and eco friendly cleaning items. And we’ll be working on display and styling ideas too.
We’re very mindful in terms of following protocols: mask wearing, sanitising, social distancing. But it all still affects businesses in terms of the number of customers who can be served, and when and how. Retail planning is complicated because we genuinely don’t know who will be visiting or the demographic of our customers, or what they’ll want to buy. Of course, we’re hoping local people will come in regularly too to use the refillery and deli.
Still exciting though, because: Christmas.
But back to the here and now.
I went for a walk this morning once I’d dropped Joe at school, then came home and started off a big pan of bigos (a Polish stew). Warming stuff - the temperatures plummeted last night and we had our first really chilly morning of the season so far. Joe’s excited at the prospect of raking leaves from the drive when he gets home, and we’re watching the last bit off Bake Off (it finished a bit late last night for him to stay up). He likes watching because he really loves it when people mess up. That’s children for you.
School phoned earlier to inform me Joe had turned up with two blocks of parmesan cheese for his lunch. I’d grabbed the wrong container this morning. This was not so much a ‘senior moment’ (I’m not quite there yet) as a ‘hormonal moment’. Apparently he was upset, understandably, so I had to hoof it up there with his lunch box and swap it for the cheese. Even worse, there was an old rind in the tub too because I like to use the end bits to flavour soup.
We’ve had longstanding plans to visit Lancashire in mid October but again, that’s uncertain now due to the Covid rules. As it stands, the journey itself is OK but accommodation not so much. We’ll try and work something out.
Life on Skye generally means you do a lot of planning anyway. There isn’t a great deal of convenience - you have to travel about a lot - so we’re used to thinking ahead.
And now I have jobs to do, emails to send, food to cook. I’m working tomorrow but Friday’s going to be a soup making extravaganza. I was also planning on baking. Joe asked me for a jar of peanut butter a few weeks ago, which I bought, and last night I found a simple recipe for making cookies with it. Then he informed me he doesn’t like peanut butter…
So it looks like plain fairy cakes instead. Iced, but without the posh vanilla extract he likes because I’m not willing to stump up £6.99 for a (tiny) replacement bottle this week. I’m such a lovely parent. I used to roll my eyes every time my mum started on about teaching me ‘the value of money’, but there’s no denying it: I‘m becoming her. And I’m OK with that.
