….. next month.
We were walking in the Aude today, and with every step we took, we realised that harvest season is well on its way.
Sorghum grains for animal feed swelled in fields where last year sunflowers had grown. A few seeds had escaped the Autumn harvest, and so this year a few cheeky sunflowers raised their heads above the more lowly winter feed.
Grapes cluster on the vine. They’ve grown almost as much as they intend, but they still have work to do. Most are still a bright acidic green. A few are starting to blush a bruised pink. Some have even achieved a classic purple: but they’re not ripe yet. We know. We tried one or two.
Grren grapes
Pink grapes
Purple grapes
And those fields of sunflowers, Apart from one field’s worth, they no longer look like those cheerful images you see on postcards from our region. Their bright sunny faces no longer track the movement of the sun as it travels across the sky. Instead, they’ve developed a hang-dog look as the weight of their maturing seeds pulls their heads earthwards.
Then there were almonds. We found a few had fallen already, so made a handful of creamy nuts into a small 11 o’clock treat. Walnuts are a different matter. They’re still heavily enclosed in their thick green fleshy coats. It’ll be a few weeks before this protection dries and splits to reveal the ripened nuts within.
A solitary almond
Ripening walnuts
Blackberries in the breeze
Apples? Yes, a few, but they’re still green, with white flesh that browns as soon as it’s bitten into. Blackberries? Hardly any have turned black. They’re still very small and green, or rather small and pink. We’ll have to wait.
So far then, only the hay bales sit plumply at the edges of the fields, ready for winter. The other crops soak up the remaining summer sunshine, fatten, ripen, and wait for the moment when they too will be gathered in.
From Pyrenees to Pennines 
yes Margaret, autumn is on its way – la lumière a changé et à 21.00 il fait nuit, ça va tellement vite………..bientôt les feuilles vont se transformer en couleur et tomber, mais j’aime bien cette saison de plénitude; d’abondance – avec ce petit goût “d’avant-mort”……et toujours tes belles photos, merci, AnnAxxx
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Et bientôt j’aurai les photos de l’automne en Angleterre pour changer un peu. A + et bises
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……ouuuuuuu, vous partez pour la GB – la campagne doit être vraiment belle là bas, j’attends les photos Margaret, bises, AnnA
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Oui, cette fois on va passer au moins 3 semaines avec la famille et les amis. Il y aura quelques photos….. Bises
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Tonight Andrew has cooked the first apple & blackberry crumble of the season. Apples from the orchard behind us & blackberries from our lane. It’s still warm but the air has a softness to it that tells me autumn is nearly here.
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Now then, now then. I have spent part of the afternoon picking blackberries and stealing apples. Astonishingly, because of the wet spring, and the wet/hot summer, the blackberries are rather good – well up to English standards for a change. So you can stop this one-upmanship at once! Yes, though, I agree. Suddenly it’s quite ‘back end-ish’. Autumn’s knocking on the door
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One-upmanship my foot! Who’s blogging about vineyards, almonds & sunflowers…I can do the walnuts though, just hoping that the pesky squirrel doesn’t return this year. Enjoy your UK break.
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I’ve seen sunflowers in Lincolnshire, and we have a vineyard near us in Yorkshire. Thanks! Keep the weather nice for us, would you?
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