last taste of summer

It felt like summer this weekend - hard to believe it's nearly the middle of October. Went for a walk in Buckingham yesterday. Most of the leaves were still green, just a few turning gold and russet. Everywhere the trees and bushes were laden with fruit: apples, damsons, quince.

Today we went to Hughenden Manor, which luckily for us was having its yearly apple day where they sell the produce from their Victorian orchards. We tried all sorts of different varieties in all manner of ways. My favourite eating apple was the D'arcy Spice. In the cafe I had apple and parsnip soup while F had Fidget Pie made with potato, bacon, apple and rosemary encased in butter pastry. We topped it off with an apple and cinnamon muffin and a cup of tea. Yum!

We also visited Lacey's Farm where we bought half a dozen eggs, a beautiful red squash for 75p and two pints of their delicious milk. The same family have been farming cows there for 7 generations.