Orange Everything

PROPER AUTUMN at last. We now have an October without the Indian Summer. Piles of leaves and new brown Doc Martin loafers with yellow and black striped laces. And I made the perfect Autumn dinner dish. A Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall recipe and so so rich. Orange sweet potato gratin with crunchy peanut butter. Layered creamy garlicky ten-pence-piece-thick slices, with dollops of peanut butter mixed with lime juice and a dash of oil running through the middle, all heated up in our oven that howls and whistles when the grill is on. Melty velvet and the most comforting thing. I think someone like Martha Stewart would approve. She has a magazine dedicated to Halloween which has a picture of a girl with home-crafted butterflies attached to the corners of her eyes on the cover. A Martha Stewart Halloween, what a wonderful thing. This is one of the costumes:



Bee Hive Plaits

We have been eating a lot of honey that came from rooftop hives in Clerkenwell, mostly in hot water or lemon and ginger tea. Staving of illness with sweet and runny honey that has hints of citrus fruit. But I'm soon headed for Scottish midges rather than Clerkenwell bees. And for wetland birds more than anything. Living by the Loch of Kinnordy for a month. Me, him, the birds and October.