In September the meadow we planted in spring (June blogpost) in front of the old farmhouse at Stensund came alive and reached its zenit. Ideally, it should be sown every year as poppies don't survive our harsh winters, but next year I shell let it be to see what flowers do turn up again.

My mother, who passed away last winter, loved flower meadows and I'm sure she would have enjoyed this one especially, being as it was quite abundant in colour!

I hope you don't get too tired of pictures from my kitchen garden. It is my messy pride and joy, and I end up taking far too many pictures of it. It is messy in autumn, as I concentrate on harvesting instead of weeding. It will all be emptied soon anyhow!

Not everything goes to plan, as you can see. Some of both the beetroots and the mangold bolted and set seed, but it was such a bumper crop that I decided not to mind.

Much of September is spent harvesting the vegetables. Each year I try different tactics to get an earlier crop, but no matter what I do the crops always peak in September. As I am back in my normal routine with work and stuff, my weekends are more busy than ever.

In the last weekend of August, there was a light festival at Raseborgs castle ruins.

It was a lovely evening with live music and different kinds of light shows and entertainment. My personal favourite was the lights in the canal.

By the end of September there was a lot of other work to be done on the farm. The ditches on our fields had not been trenched for many, many years and so they were in desperate need of some tender loving care.

My neighbour Johan from across the inlet came with his tractors and spent a good two weeks digging trenches to drain the fields. Some were left open, but some were fitted with drainage pipes and gravel and covered up with topsoil.

Later on the fields will be ploughed, and then re-sown with a pasture mix in spring, and hopefully by next summer we will have cattle grazing on the field by the water. Until then, the days get shorter and wetter, and all we have is a freezer filled with memories...