ploughing near ansty
I love autumn. Somehow it sends me back to my childhood and those seemingly endless days spent walking through the woods with the smell of leaf litter and the hope that lurking somewhere amongst the yellow beech leaves is a chanterelle. I spent so many weekends as a girl hunting for mushrooms with my grandparents and my parents. When you find a good spot, you check back every year, hoping they’ll come again and you never, ever tell.
These are some parasole mushrooms we found in a field in Dorset.
parasol mushrooms on the kitchen table
On my travels
The first hints of spring
Dorset Snowdrops 
Sweet peas
Mr Rosenblum's Garden
The writing shed needs an upgrade
Hello Natasha-
Now that I’ve finished your first novel, I’d like to thank you for introducing me to Jack, Sadie and all the other Englishpersons in such a delightful and moving way. Your book reminded me of another look at an immigrant’s attempt to assimilate – The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n by Leo Rosten. If you have not had the pleasure of reading this book – don’t deny yourself any longer!
My wife’s parents both spent World War II as Jewish children on the run and then came to the US as teenagers. Their assimilation stories and those of their few remaining relatives are amazing and amusing – my favorite involves an aunt going to the hardware store and demanding “elbow grease” because she’d heard that was what you needed to properly clean the kitchen.
Now on to “Viola”.
If you find yourself with a few free hours in NYC I’d be more than happy to take you for a walk through our vibrant rock history, which is filled with tales of nice Jewish boys obsessed with black music. (www.rockwalks.com)
Rock on,
Bob Sarlin
We love Autumn to but not been very good for edibles this year. Wonderful strange fungi found in Dorset at http://www.facebook.com/dorset.mushroom.hunters
What beautiful mushrooms. I’ve never seen anything like those before – they look absolutely delicious. We used to go mushroom hunting for magic mushrooms, which do not taste at all nice but were lots of fun. xx