Autumn is well and truly here. The air feels thinner, the sun weaker, the nights colder…

I photographed these hawthorn berries on the side of the road near Matakana the other weekend. Aren’t they beautiful?

We’ve had a busy last couple of weeks harvesting, preserving and getting our winter wood supply sorted.  We hauled 7 loads of firewood in our trusty ute (pickup) this week and stacked it away in our shed.  There’s something so utterly satisfying and reassuring about a shed full of dry, chopped, resin-scented wood, isn’t there?

There was a blissful moment on Saturday afternoon when the fire was on, rain was brewing outside, Mum and I were quietly working inside, and the air was full of the delicious lemony aroma of my man baking zingy citrus cakes in the kitchen. Ahhhhhh…….!