Of Vineyards, Fruit Trees and Autumnal Bliss

I love Autumn. It is my favourite time of the year. The cooling breezes – so refreshing after the summer dust, the cicadas trilling throughout the afternoon, the apples adorning the trees. I love to get out in the garden and dig up the earth without burning to a crisp or dying of dehydration.

I plan potential landscaping projects. I plan which bushes need repotting or transferring to a more advantageous spot. Mostly I love to sit with a cup of tea and ponder.  This week I managed to dig (and manure) two of my vegetable plots. One was sown with mustard seed, in preparation for tomatoes, and the other will have broccoli seeds (saved from last year’s crop). It already has an errant self-seeded pruple broccoli now in residence. I do not spray harmful chemicals in the garden – companion planting, crop rotation and organic gardening is my preference.

I love to visit my inlaw’s vineyard - Parish Hill Wines, in the Adelaide Hills. I am told it is a great pity that I am a teetotaler. (Well, that is what my friends say – they love getting bottles of wine as gifts!). I feel right at home fossicking around there orchard, sitting on their verandah or taking my camera for a wander.

Today the vines were still mostly covered with birdnetting, the odd leaf starting to show a hint of gold. We came home with over a kilo of quinces, over a dozen Jonathan Smith apples and a dozen eggs.

  

I love Autumn.

Of Vineyards, Fruit Trees and Autumnal Bliss