Mabon is here! It’s officially autumn, though today here in Northern Ireland the weather is actually quite lovely and warm. Best of both worlds for me, since summer is my favourite season, though Halloween is my favourite themed time of year.
Hey, did any of you get to see the super moon on 17th/18th September? Well, I didn’t. Despite living on a hill, there is a lot of light pollution in my area because of tall buildings, which sadly prevented me from seeing the aurora earlier this year, though this wouldn’t have prevented me from seeing the moon. I went out in my front garden after dark, and out the back too on both the 17th and 18th, and couldn’t see the moon anywhere, though the stars were lovely.
I love autumn. Halloween is my favourite themed season, as I love the spooky season, and I also enjoy all the autumn colours. We’ve been having unseasonably warm weather here in Northern Ireland so I can’t complain.
My zucchini summer squash plant is loving all the sun. Before the recent spell of warm weather, there was an overnight arctic cold snap and I decided to harvest the two squash that were growing, even though they were small, as I didn’t want them to wither. Alas, I don’t have psychic powers! If I had known the weather would be so lovely, I would have let them grow. Anyway, here they are and they did taste nice, if a little bitter. The flowers were lovely too, very fragrant. Apparently in Italy, they fry them in batter, but I was curious to try them raw so I added them to my salad. They’re high in vitamin C, which I didn’t want to get lost by cooking.
As for the squash, if they had grown as big as my palm I would have stuffed them with mince (ground beef for US readers!) and onion, but since they were little, I steamed them and ate them alongside other seasonal veg when we had steak and kidney pie. The good news is, the plant itself is thriving and three more tiny squash are starting to grow. Hurray!
Hopefully they’ll be ready to harvest in October. Here’s a pic of me and my proud, tiny harvest. Not bad for my first time trying to grow zucchini summer squash.
What other autumnal news do I have to share on this lovely day celebrating Mabon? Well, I’m running an autumn sale on my spookier books to kick off the season, why not? You can grab a discount copy of my Belfast Ghosts series ebooks and also Diabolical Dreamscapes for only 99p each for the next few days.
Leilanie Stewart 
They stuff the flowers in Greece, very tasty. You could probably find a recipe online. Congratulations on your harvest! 😊
Ooh, lovely! I’ll have a look for the recipes. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the new ones growing. Hopefully in time for Halloween…🤞
Let us know how you get on. 😊
Will do! If they get big enough to be stuffed, I’ll definitely have an update. 🤞☺️
There is that, I guess. Well done for growing them though. 😊