Autumn Equinox: Day 6

The sixth day of our Autumn Equinox festivities... and time for a picnic!

Turton and Entwistle Reservoir

We went for a picnic today at Turton and Entwistle Reservoir today. It was so sunny!

Colourful Forest Tea

We took a moment to enjoy the season with Colourful Forest tea. I can't remember where I got the tea from, but it was nice to just pause, sip the tea, and let the season and the forest wash over us.

Autumn Equinox: Day 5

It's the fifth day of our Autumn Equinox festivities, and we had quite a lot planned for today. It's nice to be off work, so we can have a bit of seasonal fun today.

Autumn Equinox Walk in the Park

This morning, I led a seasonal walk for Friends of Crumpsall Park. To be honest, it just descended into a mushroom hunt, but there were some beautiful specimens to be found.

Hannah’s Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special

Then this afternoon it was my annual Hannah's Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special on North Manchester FM, where I played seasonal flash fiction from 15 writers, played some seasonal music, and ate some apple pies with the volunteers at the community centre where the radio station is based.

Autumn Equinox Dinner

We had our traditional Autumn Equinox dinner of vegetarian meatloaf and root vegetable & saffron rice tonight.

Autumn Equinox Gifts

And after dinner we exchanged our traditional gifts and cards. These whiskies will go into the tasting set that we'll enjoy in December.

Dark Night of the Scarecrow

We rounded off the evening with the traditional Autumn Equinox film... Dark Night of the Scarecrow.

Autumn Equinox: Day 4

It's the start of squash season! Hooray! We didn't have any time for festivities today (work), but we did have time for squash.

Spaghetti Squash

We got a spaghetti squash in this week's Groobox delivery, so we had it for tea, baked with cheese and truffle oil. 'Tis the season!

Autumn Equinox: Day 3

Another day of celebrating the Autumn Equinox, but another day of being too busy for festivities. I've got a feeling my posts this year are going to be totally dominated by food. Well... it is harvesttime.

Corn on the Cob

I started off the harvest season with corn on the cob (at the start of our Lammas celebrations), so it's only fitting that I'm rounding off the season with it as well. We've had a lot of sweetcorn in our Groobox deliveries this summer!

Autumn Equinox: Day 2

The second day of our Autumn Equinox celebrations, and unfortunately rain sort of stopped play for a bit today. The woodland walk I was meant to be leading this morning was cancelled, and then we had to move the Poetry in the Park session for the care home indoors. Still, the rain eased off in the afternoon, so not all was lost.

Autumn Equinox Celebration

In lieu of our planned Poetry in the Park event, I did an indoor Autumn Equinox Celebration at Castlerea Care Home. We had poetry, music, apple pies and lots of seasonal conversation.

Autumn Equinox Walk in the Woods

This evening, I led a woodland walk for Friends of Bailey's Wood to celebrate the changing seasons. As well as talking about the folklore and astronomy of the equinox, we also spotted some lovely signs of autumn, including conkers, acorns and very cute mushrooms. The sun was just starting to set as we finished the walk, which looked fabulous through the trees.

Autumn Equinox: Day 1

It's the first day of our Autumn Equinox celebrations for this year! I've got a few seasonal events and celebrations planned, but today was a work day so no festivities. Instead, today seemed to be all about eating as many sweet seasonal treats as possible. I didn't plan it that way, but it happened.

Apple & Cinnamon Baton and Maple Pecan Danish

I thought it would be nice to start the Autumn Equinox off with some seasonal pastries.

Toffee Apple Muffin and Iced Pumpkin Spice Caramel Macchiato

The internet went down at work today, so we decided to have one of our meetings in a coffee shop instead. And who I am to resist a new seasonal coffee menu?

Apple Pies

When we got back to the office, I remembered I'd brought in a box of apple pies as well. So that was the afternoon sorted!

Imbolc: Day 3

Another day of celebrating Imbolc... and another day of being a bit too busy to celebrate. Between a new job and a new book coming out, I haven't got very much downtime this January!

Drink in the Pub

After a pretty busy day, I did have a bit of time for a quick drink in my local with a friend to celebrate the promotion and the book coming out.

Imbolc: Day 2

It's the second day of our Imbolc celebrations... but I'm too busy to do any celebrating. Oh dear. Hopefully, we'll catch up by the weekend.

Snowdrops

Since I didn't get chance for any festivities, I had to content myself with seeing some snowdrops instead today.

Imbolc: Day 1

It's nearly Imbolc, and so it's time to start celebrating! Well... maybe... in an appropriately seasonal twist, I had an interview for a job (a promotion, in fact) just after Plough Monday, and so I'm hitting the ground running with the new role. I'm having an incredibly busy second half of January, but that's how it should be. You have to break the ground in January to prepare for the fruitful year ahead.

Dinner with a Friend

Tonight wasn't technically a festive occasion, but it was still a nice thing. I went for dinner at Zizzi with a friend to celebrate my new job. My dinner was very heavily mushroom-based (Mushroom Brindisi, followed by Mushroom & Truffle with Burrata).

Countdown to Christmas: Day 15

Another day of celebrating the countdown to Christmas!

Lizard

And another day of our festive Cornish getaway.

Grapefruit Shower Steamer

Today, my shower was scented with grapefruit!

Coastal Path Walk

We went for a walk from our cottage to Lizard village along the coastal path this morning. It's not a long walk, but it's very pretty.

Mince Pie at Twisted Lizard

We popped into Twisted Lizard, a quirky little gift shop that's opened since the last time we were here, to get a couple of Christmas gifts, and we got mulled wine and a homemade mince pie!

Ann’s Pasties

Our main reason for walking into Lizard (apart from the lovely scenery and the Christmas shopping) was to get a couple of pasties from Ann's Pasties, our favourite Cornish pasty shop!

Christmas Tree Cake

We also got these gorgeous cakes!

Abominable Books

As always, I've been saving my latest Abominable Books subscription box for a treat. I opened it this afternoon, and I got Feast While You Can by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta, Marginal by Tom Carlisle, a festive flapjack and some other horror goodies.

Surviving Christmas

Tonight's Christmas film was Surviving Christmas.

Hotel Magnifique

After the film, I read Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor. What a gorgeous book this is! I absolutely loved it!

Advent Tea

Today's tea from my Bird and Blend advent calendar was Mulled Cider!

Advent Model

And today's model from our other advent calendar was a little snow plough!