We were late back from our afternoon dog walk. Good scuff in the leaves and it occurred to us... barely four weeks to the shortest day & then we’ve turned the corner. 
Really looking forward to reading this. Patchwork: A Life Amongst Clothes by Claire Wilcox. 
Double my badness. 
I seem to be comfort food baking my way through this lockdown. Consequences will eventually have to be addressed but for now this rice pudding is heading from the top to the bottom oven of the Aga to cook nice & slowly. Recipe is that old faithful, Delia’s Eliza Acton. Now I must go & sort the mash for the shepherd’s pie. As I said, there will be consequences next year when the summer wardrobe comes out, but frankly it’s all about now. 
Today feels like a Mary Azarian sort of day to me... 
I’ve been waiting ages for this but it’s here at last. A proof copy of Dangerous Women by Hope Adams known to many of us as @adelegeras. The Rajah sails for Australia in 1841 & there may be trouble ahead. Just look at that gorgeous cover. 
This photo is many years old but it’s the reason we have the barn owl box because it was our first sighting of a barn owl, perched right outside the window and we were mesmerised (once we’d tripped over each other to find the camera). An update for this year as several of you have asked... no owlets this year, but unlike last year, when the owlets left and the box remained empty for a while, this year we still have a resident. We can’t tell if male or female, but every night we hear it (recently very noisy) so we switch the lights off and look out and there it is, the ghostly white apparition perched on the box and flying low around the garden. And this week two of them, so perhaps they are pairing up again. 
Thank you so much to @deborahvasspainting I won the owl in her recent giveaway. He flew in safely this morning & is very happily settled. Deborah he’s beautiful, your work is stunning & I’m so thrilled that I have now have given ‘Little Owl’ a home xx 
A long slow world-escaping walk around the field boundaries yesterday, and with the sun low in the sky as it heads towards the winter solstice. Flocks of linnets swooped & dived in a chorus overhead. More than I can recall seeing before which may be a result of several fields set aside & sown with a winter bird feeding crop.