It’s the months of moles and rusted mushrooms; gathering fruits and nuts; of sticky cobwebs that cloaked the house and grimly determined spiders.
Autumn is coming quickly on the Kattegat Sea. The water cools, fog rushes in, geese gather in the bay, fly in 50 bird laps.
The blackbirds have switched from the cherry to the rowanberry. The young female pecks at the fire-colored berries. The young male attacks her whole and fills his beak.
Autumn is coming quickly on the Kattegat Sea. The water cools down, fog rushes in, geese gather in the bay
The cows feast on pruning trees and round hay bales. Flocks of crows and gulls patrol the newly cut wheat fields in search of grain that the machines have overlooked.
Henri and her mother made Ina’s black currant jam, which sets quickly and smells strongly of fruit. The birds have cleared the currant bushes. The pears have disappeared, although I have no idea why. The apples are far from ready. We give the hazelnuts to the squirrels.
We cut the “meadow” to distribute the seeds. We’ll leave it until next summer. The bees have largely disappeared. There are a few butterflies, a few caterpillars, electric-blue-green dragonflies, the return of the wood midges. I’m chasing them madly around the house. We sleep with a net like in India.
The city councils are shortening the rugosa on the side of the road. We’ll wait a while to circumcise ours. However, it is time to take stock. To wander around the edges and plan the lilac trimmings for next spring. Cutting out self-sowing cherries.
The large larch has overtaken the old silver birch this year. Darkened it by almost 2m. Trees that were planted as saplings a decade ago now surpass the 70-year-old oak. Behind it the quick red pines, some crazy hazelnuts.
I drive to another beach to check on the sand martins. They are still here in numbers. Swooping, gliding over the waves. The secret sea buckthorn is almost ready. We will return for Ina, for blackberries and apples. For my mother’s best pudding.
Allan Jenkins’ Plot 29 (4th Estate, £ 9.99) is available now. Order it for £ 8.49 from guardianbookshop.com
