I’ve two cross-stitch finishes to share with you, they’re both pretty quick makes so I stitched them over the weekend, finishing the last one just now…

Firstly I stitched the wordplay for October. This will be opposite the colourful cyclamen square from the Anthea Calendar SAL by Faby Reilly…

I’m trying to base these wordplays around things I’ve done, places I’ve been, notable dates…that was the plan anyway, but of course the way the year has panned out I’m not doing much at all! We haven’t any birthdays in October, the only date really was halloween.

My walking buddy and I did manage to walk 7 miles of the Guiseley Gap walk, we finished the walk this morning but that will wait for another post. This is my favourite photo from the first half…

Conkers, for those who don’t live in the same climes as me, are the nut produced by the horse chestnut tree. They’re not edible unfortunately, the chestnuts we eat are from the sweet chestnut tree. Conkers however are beautiful, they’re the sort of thing you can pick up on an autumn walk and play with in your pocket, smooth and shiny. As kids we used to hang them on a piece of string and play ‘conkers’, basically trying to bash the hell out of your opponents conker, great fun but unfortunately now banned from playgrounds in case the little darlings get hurt. I was stood in a bus shelter the other day when there was an almighty thud on the roof, I jumped a mile, it was only when the second thud occurred that I realised it was conkers falling from the tree!

The hedgerows have been particularly plentiful this year, with haws, blackberries, elderberry’s, hips…

I always associate the smell of woodsmoke with autumn as a lot of people these days, us included, have wood burning stoves, so you get the wisps of smoke from the chimneys and the lovely distinct smell.

When I was young, dunnocks were called hedge sparrows, they are now though called dunnocks, as apparently they are not at all connected to the sparrow. Dunnocks are the ubiquitous little brown bird, we regularly see them in the garden, bobbing about in the undergrowth.

I’ve three cotinus coggygria in the garden, a burgundy one in both the front and the back, and a golden leafed one in the front too, I love the splash of colour they bring. If you don’t prune them you get frothy plumes of tiny flowers late summer, hence it’s other name of smoke bush. Somehow the colour never looks as good in a photo!

I struggled a bit for a quote this month, in the end I went for a couple of lines from a Carole King song called Tapestry;

My life has been a tapestry of rich and royal hue,

An everlasting vision of an ever changing view,

A wondrous woven magic in bits of blue and gold,

A tapestry to see and feel, impossible to hold.

Usually this is the time for Harvest Festivals in schools and churches around the country. I remember when James was a toddler we used to attend a little village church near here and it was beautifully decorated with fruit and vegetables, James was about 2 at the time and he kept eating the grapes off the display in front of us!

Sometimes it seems to take longer to design the wordplay than it does to stitch it. I was planning to add a cyclamen flower but I didn’t quite have room so I used the furled bud and a frond instead, I think they work pretty well. I added a couple of sequins and an inch or two of the border and the square was finished. Just in time too as November’s design has just been released, the penultimate page!

I think my second finish will wait until tomorrow…