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I’m rather late in sharing this post, but we have been travelling with little access to Wi-Fi! My ‘mishmash’ could be called a review, but having checked ‘mishmash’ in the dictionary, the definition is a ‘confused mixture’. This post is definitely a mixture, but I’ll let you decide on the ‘confused’ part!

We traditionally like to spend September in France, when possible. However, we don’t have enough of our ‘Brexit days’ left, so our return will be in October. I find it quite difficult to explain the ninety-day rule and I’m aware that we could apply for a visa to stay longer. Perhaps I’ll just clarify the rules in a later post.

September has to be one of my favourite months. I think it always has been. When I was teaching, I loved the idea of a fresh school year, a different timetable, meeting unknown students and, above all, new stationery!

According to the meteorological calendar, the first day of autumn is always 1st September; ending on 30th November. I love the September weather in the UK – the variety, the temperatures, and this year I’ve even enjoyed the rain. We have had a drought this summer and here, in the south-east, we still have a hosepipe ban in place, as the water in the reservoirs remains low.

I began September with a visit to the Dulwich Picture Gallery. I did actually go on the first day of the month. If you would like to read about my visit here is the link:

https://fancyingfrance.com/2022/09/07/why-visit-dulwich-picture-gallery/ In this post I selected several pictures from the exhibition, but I didn’t include these:

All these were on one of the outside walls of the gallery. I love that I reflect the theme of the exhibition I went to see.

Have you heard of Jodie Comer? If you were a fan of ‘Killing Eve’, you will be familiar with her work. In September, our local arts centre had a live streaming of her performance in ‘Prima Facie’ from the National Theatre. I think Jodie Comer is an outstanding actor and I was eager to see her starring in Suzie Miller’s play about sexual assault and the legal system.

It is a one woman play concerning a young barrister who specialises in defending men accused of sexual assault. Everything changes when she is assaulted herself. By the end of the play, I was exhausted but in a good way – if that’s possible! It wasn’t a ‘light’ evening out, but it was a play that made me reflect on the subject matter for a long time after the end.

As for Jodie Comer, she was brilliant!

We are lucky enough to have two Bramley apple trees in our garden. This year we had an excellent crop. Enough to make lots of jars of chutney, as well as giving many bags of apples away to family and friends. I decided to make a spiced apple cake. Usually, I follow recipes to the letter, but I have become more adventurous since I was given my KitchenAid stand mixer.

Instead of following the exact instructions of the recipe, I chucked everything in the mixer, switched it on and hoped for the best, with my fingers crossed! It’s not the most attractive photo of the finished article but it was very tasty.

I couldn’t write a mishmash without including at least one photo of Zeph! We did lots of walking in September; maybe this was taken after a meet up with his collie friends. Perhaps you can come up with a suitable caption for this photo?!

I hope you have enjoyed my September mishmash. Do you like this time of the year? I’d love to know!

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