It’s October, the start of Autumn with darker evenings and beautiful Autumnal colours in woods and parklands. Autumn is often a time to think back on warm summer days, trips to the beach, BBQ’s in the garden and outdoor get togethers. It’s also a time when we start to contemplate the long winter months ahead but first, why not enjoy some Autumn themed traditions.

Here are a few of our favourites:

Playing conkers: firstly, collecting them, scouring woods and parks, filling coat pockets and then spending time choosing the biggest, hoping its also the hardest one and then threading it onto a string, tying with a massive knot and heading to the playground with pride.

Apple bobbing: a barrel or bowl filled with water and several apples bobbing around on the surface. With your hands behind your back, the aim is to ‘bob’ for an apple using only your teeth. It’s meant to be a fun, party activity, but probably breaches many health and safety policies!

Pumpkin carving: a chance for all the creatives amongst us to carve faces into pumpkins and place a nightlight inside, resulting in a spooky Halloween lantern. It’s a perfect way to enjoy every part of the beautiful vegetable as the seeds can be washed and roasted; they are a lovely, crunchy addition to salad as well as a tasty snack. The flesh can be made into a fabulous soup, perfect as a warming lunch as the days grow cooler. (Pumpkin soup recipe | BBC Good Food)

Harvest: a time to celebrate the gathering of fruits and vegetables. Many faith groups, schools and community groups collect donations of local produce, tinned and packet goods which are then distributed across neighbourhoods. Often beautiful harvest festival displays are created, many featuring a wheatsheaf made from bread and baked to a wonderful golden brown colour. I particularly like the ones which have a little bread mouse, nestling somewhere in the design.

So, as we start to spend more time indoors, perhaps it’s an opportunity to take a moment to reflect and say thank you for the harvest, the long, hot summer days and lovely, light evenings; I’m missing them already!  

We are definitely looking forward as well, we will be delivering some new projects and programmes over the next few months; check out our website for more information and subscribe to our newsletter to keep up to date on our latest news.