Another week gone

View from our back garden

This has been a busy week, at work and otherwise. Autumn in full swing, generously spreading beautiful colours and offering gorgeous views, such as the one above. 

My garlic has finally arrived, but I'm not happy with it at all. The variety is called 'Provence Wight', so I thought it would be sent from somewhere in the UK, but it turned out the seller was based in China. That's why it took 22 days to arrive! The bulbs were wrapped in plastic, got all moist in transit, and started sprouting and growing roots. I had no idea if they were still suitable for autumn planting, but I gave it a try - they're all in the ground. I am not expecting much, I imagine they will die over the winter, but it was better than throwing them away.

Ever since the farmer who owns the field behind our house harvested his barley, we've been getting visitors on the other side of our fence. Lots and lots of cows! They're quite friendly and lovely to look at. 

We've been to Lanark Loch recently - we took a walk around the loch and had a look in the surrounding woods for mushrooms. We didn't find many - maybe 4 or 5 - but one of them was so huge it probably weighed about 350g on its own. I sliced them all and added to the bag of mushrooms in my freezer - it's getting really big!

Lanark Loch's swans

We went to the cinema on Wednesday night to see Inferno, based on Dan Brown's latest book. I absolutely loved the book and was so looking forward to seeing the film! But I have never been more disappointed with a book-to-film adaptation. I had expected minor changes - after all, film is a very different medium so things have to be adjusted - and that was all fine. But they also completely changed the ending! I won't go into details and spoilers, but I had not expected them to turn the ending around like that, and I really did not like it. 

***

Christmas is less than 2 months away. Shops are full of decorations, ''gift ideas'' and Christmas issues of all the magazines. We are planning to shop for presents for all the kids in the family very soon, to avoid the madness closer to the time (and to spread the cost!). I usually start thinking about my Christmas menu in early November - we have a few staples, but I usually try to include something new every year. We expect around 10 people at our table this year. This will be our first Christmas in our new house, and first Christmas ever for our cat Banjo, which worries me a little because he is definitely going to climb the Christmas tree. Our other cat Diuna has never tried that and we've never had any issues, but with Banjo it's pretty much guaranteed. He loves climbing and has already conquered all the spots in our house I thought were out of his reach. And he is definitely going to steal the tree decorations too. This should be fun!