If I were more domesticated, I would be even busier at this time of year than I normally am, making jams and pickles and chutneys, freezing and drying, and doing whatever I could to preserve the bounty Nature provides in the autumn. (I have begun keeping glass lidded jars – it’s a beginning!)

Out front of the house where I live there’s a tree, which I think is a type of crab apple, though its fruit have ripened to a golden yellow colour rather than red. (My photos here are actually of another tree and its fruit, found in a local park, but they’re exactly the same.) Crab apple jelly is the recipe that appears most often when I google, though the huge quantities of sugar in those recipes horrify me just a little. Crab apple cider seems to be another possibility – and I do quite like a nice glass of cider – but that requires lots of fancy equipment. I think you can tell that taking photos is as far as I’ll get to doing anything with the crab apples this year but at least that means the birds get to enjoy them instead. (If you have some suggestions for what to do with crab apples for next year, do feel free to share them in the comments.)