Top Autumn Essentials

Not Needing New - Autumn Essentials

This is just to remind you, you do not need to go out and spend a load of your money buying special autumn essential things so that you will have a better end to the year.

You are not dressing a set for the BBC (well, most of you won't be!) and even if you do love to be creative and reflect the seasons within your home, you don't need to haul back special spiced latte cups, trays with harvest mice on, towels with pumpkins and leaves embroidered along the edges, from the shops or use the big A to deliver you loads of themed objects.

There is a deep beauty and grounding experience for us, in recognising the seasons, and I think that it is part of a healthy lifestyle to make changes and adaptations as we settle in with the wider environment and fall into step with weather and lighting and food choices - when my children were small I used to have a sort of 'nature table' thing (you can take the teacher out of the classroom...and all that) and we used to occasionally (when I wasn't too knackered or at work?!) make stuff from leaves and wax, tracing paper, string and pine cones. I even sewed up a few little gnome things to sit on the pile and felt thoroughly wholesome for an hour or two, and this is just to remind you that there are loads of leaves and seed heads, stems and cones, feathers and twigs and conkers out there for free if you can get into the woods. These free 'Top Autumn Essentials' don't have to be left on the ground when childhood is over, they can still come home and be beautiful things for you now, if you like.

My old kitchen table and my autumn 'Sunflower Baby' on the left.

This is one of my old nature table pics. It's just some 59p squashes from Aldi with the little sewn up Sunflower Baby I made and some material scraps made into tiny pumpkins all stuffed into a couple of bowls where some pebbles and a cactus live. Now I am a bit less 'tryey' - but I will take scissors out occasionally and cut seed heads, wild grasses and the odd overhanging twig down and stick them in a vase. I always think that the wild and true autumn essential stuff holds a far greater, simple beauty than all of the designs glittering away in TK Maxx or Home Bargains.

Dried seed heads & the evening shadows

We were not naked in Autumn 2016!

My point in including this picture from September 2016, is that Gus and I have these same clothes now.

Right here, in our homes. We have gone through autumn many times before - this is not new! We do not need to go looking for top autumn wardrobe essentials. We *might* struggle if we were suddenly told that we were going deep-sea scuba diving, or on a motorcycle tour of Nepal - we might need to get new stuff for that, but we have not been standing naked throughout the past few autumns, so I am sure that we will already have the autumn essentials we need to enjoy everything coming our way! And who knew I had this scarf for the past 7 or 8 years? and who cares? I loved it then, I love it now! The same goes for your cosy jumpers and faithful old boots.

The things I think you might need over autumn include: a bit more sleep - after all, we are driven by our circadian rhythms and as the evenings draw in, we are inclined to lull into a hibernation state where we sleep a bit more and rest ourselves. So do that if you can!

Enjoy your friends and family. Make a few arrangements now for things to look forward to over the autumn and winter. It's a LONG time of being in your house, behind your curtains, under your duvet, and if it's not punctuated with some social stuff, it can get a bit gloomy. I have already got a plan for a late October rendezvous with some sisters and a large hill!

Make sure you eat well. Autumn is a time of abundance here in England and there are so many British things available, that are good for you and cheap! I am thinking of potatoes, squashes, apples, carrots, cabbage, beetroot, blackberries, pears, parsnips, spinach, courgettes, mushrooms, beans! It is a great time to buy them cheaply, chop them up, freeze them or cook up and freeze soups etc - stock up while it's all fresh and ready and low transport miles and really cheap to buy. These are proper autumn essentials.

One last thing that might be something you'd like for autumn, winter and beyond - I am going to create a newsletter option for a small subscription. I might put it here on my blog, or on Instagram @not.needing.new (I think I want to put it here, but IG has so many more readers!) the newsletter will have a 'How To' section with a way to fix or make something, it will have style tips, behind the scenes pics and comments from the month, discount codes for small sustainable businesses, a poem or piece of prose to match the season, a super healthy vegetarian recipe from Gus, and Beamer's Blog (a note from a dog) - if you are interested PLEASE let me know in the comments. I am so excited about creating it and I would LOVE to know if anyone's in?

It would only be a few pounds a month to join and I promise it will be lovely!

Ordinary content will also continue. All followers / readers are valued and really, truly appreciated.