I said last year that autumn comes early to Ireland and hey – it’s that time of year again. Actually it seems as if spring has just slipped past summer with barely a glance. It has been the coldest and wettest summer for nine years and we are already getting ready for winter. Still, there is one good thing about autumn here in Tipperary. Almost overnight the nasty, tiny biting flies are gone, or at least thinning out considerably. The fly season has been shorter this year, probably as they don’t like the rain so much, but they’ve made up for it by being much nastier when they do bite. Well, the cooler weather should put paid to the last of them.

I think our swifts have gone now. For a week there was a cloud of them over the wood and garden each evening, swooping and calling as they gobbled up my nemesis. Go on swifts – eat your fill! I’ve always had a soft spot for them, especially after a week in Dubrovnic. This was before all the “Game of Thrones” stuff so the town was much less over run. Jacqui was presenting a paper at the International Centre and we booked a house inside the old town. It was up on the ramparts and the top room reached out over the street four floors below.

I spent part of each morning writing a diary and watching the town come to life, first our top few layers and then all the way down. As the sun rose above the buildings huge flocks of swifts flew through the narrow gaps between the houses, hundreds of them, shouting and skimming at seemingly impossible speeds around the corners. They were below our kitchen, in the narrow alleys. It was a wonderful sight. Our swifts bring back those memories of journeys past. The starlings have lined up on the wires too, heading off for somewhere warmer. Now it’s the time of year to welcome different birds into the garden.

Actually there’s a second up side to the time of year. The apples on the Katy tree are ripening fast and I go out each day to look for windfalls. They are absolutely delicious but don’t keep well for more than a few weeks so we are enjoying them now. I’m amazed we have had any fruit so soon after planting. I think that is down to Donal and the care he has taken in choosing and setting the trees. Another tree, James Grieves, has a couple of apples too. I never in my life thought we would be harvesting fruit from our own trees. I can’t wait for next year, to see what that brings.

Out in the wood the new trees are doing well and we are now thinking about the next phase. It’s the time of year for clearing, cutting back and ordering trees for winter planting but also for enjoying the progress we have made. This year’s star is the little Norwegian Maple, now settling into its autumn coat. The leaves are turning a stunning deep red and this will be a wonderful centerpiece in a few years. Jacqui chose well, with trees giving colour through much of the year. Early blossom fades into green and silver leaves until autumn brings some welcome warmth with red and gold. Now we are thinking about a copper beech or two, a horse chestnut at the very back and (if we can get it) a Balsam Fir as an outdoor Christmas tree.

This is also the time of year when lots of relatively small jobs rear their heads. We have finally located a sweep who removed several years of soot from the stove chimney. A great relief, and the fire draws much better now. The boiler needs to be serviced – it’s suddenly going cold in the middle of a shower, which is not what you want on these cooler mornings. The wonderful “new” water system is also due new filters and a service as it has been in for a year now. All this takes a lot of organizing, especially as we are quite remote. Understandably workmen and engineers try to lump jobs together if possible so we are dependant on other (relatively) local people also needing these things done.

On a trip into town last week we spotted a bright yellow tray in an antique shop window. It was badly cracked and useless as a tray but there aren’t many artifacts emblazoned with “Finches”, complete with a picture of a bird.
After mulling it over for a few days I went in and bought it. I’m not sure what we are going to do with it – fix it to my study door maybe? Put it on display on a shelf? Still, we are very careful what we buy now and are moving much more stuff out than in so as the first impulse buy in over a year I don’t feel too bad about it.

Well, it’s getting cold up here and it’s the time of year when we need to consider running the heating for an hour or so if we are sitting for a while. Hoping you are all healthy and keeping well. Thank you for reading.

Jennie.