Autumn is here

Oxford is in full Autumn swing. The trees are ablaze, the light is golden and going for walks along the river, with the colours reflecting in the water is just the thing. During the last couple of weekends we've made sure to take a walk outdoors and see what we can see. It is also nice to end the exploration with a local real ale in a pub over which we can discuss the findings. Last Sunday we investigated Sidlings Copse, which is on the Eastern side of Oxford and has quite a variety of different habitats (woodland, heather, marsh). It is an ancient woodland and with its broad-leafed trees was good for mushrooming. Andrew collected quite a few varieties, some of which he dried and others are currently getting spore prints for identification.


A few weekends ago we went to a local gathering to pick apples and make fresh apple juice. We live just off Morrell Avenue, and as we learnt, there are some remaining trees from Morrell's Cider and Perry Orchard nearby. They are on common land, so free for anyone to harvest - and there are some good varieties, including Russet's which make delicious eating. Someone brought an apple scratter and a press. Here are some pictures of us first chopping up the apples in the scratter, which hacks apart the apples as you turn a handle, dropping the pieces into a bucket below:

Then we pressed them. After all the juice has been squished out, the top and sides of the press are removed, leaving what looks like a giant cheese made of apple pieces:

...and from here we all took a few bottles of fresh apple juice home. As it was made from a mixture of cooking and eating apples, it had a great twang too it - absolutely delicious. Even though it was drizzly all day, we still had great fun. William was a great help, throwing apples into the scratter.

Talking of whom, the purpose of this entry is to update you on all the new things he's done recently. There is almost something new every day. Some of the things he has mastered in the last month include walking backwards, saying "Uh-oh" and learning to point to parts of the face (nose, eye, ears etc).