The Pantry

Autumn colour is still around in splashes, but now for the mostpart, thanks to a few breezy and rainy days, the leaves have nearly all vanished from the trees. This year we had some spectacular colours which last year were not apparent due to an early and hard frost in October.

trees on driveway

snowball tree

pear tree

The weather held out long enough for us to complete tidying the vegie garden so we feel that for once we are in time with all the chores. The beds have been cleaned, tidied, dug over, manured, and some even replanted with winter and spring crops. One thing we are trying this year [mainly due to our lack of success with it during the spring] is peas. This lot are supposed to be hardy down to -18 so we'll see how they do in our garden - already the new shoots are through, as well as those of the broad beans, onions, shallots, etc. You will also notice the addition of a bird bath below which Wouter made early autumn out of some leftover concrete and limewash.

vegie garden with bird bath

We have bought some fuel for the central heating system this year which we have not used much so far. A couple of days ago we had our last delivery of firewood, which will hopefully see us through the winter. We are trying to be prudent with our logs and we also use any branches and dead wood we cut out of the trees in the garden.

While raking up leaves a few days ago, I thought I had run the rake over a dead bird, but on closer inspection I saw a blink of an eye and realised it was a toad. The first time we've seen one in our garden. It must be the time of year for amphibians as the following day a bright green tree frog jumped out of one of my shoes!

toad

A few nights ago we celebrated St Martin in the village - he's a popular saint in Germany and people walk around their village with lanterns while singing songs. The children in our village thought it was wonderful and at this time of year it's dark enough to do these things early evening.

me with stars and moons lantern

the children listening to the story of St Martin

walking through the village

Meanwhile in our kitchen there have been improvements with the fitting of a pantry - before it was just a corner stacked with old wine crates [filled with pantry items]. Wouter had promised to get this storage done before Christmas so he's well in time.

space for the pantry

I spent a day clearing out the crates and stores before Wouter could make a start. After a lot of measuring, cutting and fitting, the pantry is ready. Another day filling it up and organising the shelves - after 2 years you get used to things being in a certain place.

starting to fill

Only one thing remains to be finished and that is the door - it's a narrow space and a door needs hinges and limits access on one side or the other - meanwhile we have a window blind which looks quite nice and the light behind makes it look rather cosy.