Madron 2022

The week before last (Friday 23rd September) it was Madron, more commonly known as Mabon and the Autumn Equinox. (Some people will have celebrated on Thursday, depending on their time zone.) I wasn't able to get a post about it done last weekend, so I'm doing it today instead. :)

As I mentioned in the Celebrating Madron! post, my main celebration is baking and this year I made some pumpkin spice bars. The recipe is from Simply Taralynn: https://simplytaralynn.com/2022/09/05/delicious-pumpkin-spice-bars-with-maple-frosting/

It has a maple frosting because Taralynn (the blogger) isn't keen on cream cheese frosting. I considered making the maple icing, but in the end decided to go for cream cheese. I know it goes well with ginger things, so imagined it would be nice with pumpkin flavours. I used the (frosting) recipe from Taralynn's gingerbread cookie bars with cream cheese frosting: https://simplytaralynn.com/2020/12/15/gingerbread-cookie-bars-with-cream-cheese-frosting-gluten-free-and-dairy-free/

I might make the gingerbread cookie bars in future!

I don't think pumpkin spice is easily available here, so I used mixed spice instead, which is apparently similar. You can make your own pumpkin spice though, here's a recipe from Little House Living that tells you how (see the Spice Mixes section): https://www.littlehouseliving.com/7-pantry-staples-start-making.html

Update 3/10/24: The link above now redirects to a similar post and I can't find the pumpkin spice recipe. But here's one from Don't Waste the Crumbs: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/homemade-pumpkin-pie-spice-recipe/

The recipe also requires pumpkin puree which isn't widely available in the UK either. I did buy some from Tesco before but they've stopped doing it. However, I was able to get some from Waitrose (America's Finest brand). 

The pumkin bars were nice. I wondered if the puree would make them too "gooey" but it all blended nicely. And the cream cheese frosting went well with them. Here's a picture:

 

I cut a slice out to show what the bars look like!

I also baked some bread, but not from scratch this time! It was a wholemeal bread mix from Waitrose. I liked it, although when I ate some the next day it did seem to have a bit of a heavy texture. Here's a pic:

I had some just after I'd baked it and then more for lunch the next day, as part of a Ploughman's. I also had some Fentiman's ginger beer to drink.

I'd planned to go up to my favourite nature reserve on a hill at sunset but there wasn't much of one. So, I went the next day instead . It was a nice sunset. Here are a couple of photos:

 

Sunset on Mill Hill, Shoreham-by-sea.

 

So now we're officially in autumn! It's really feeling like it now, the past week has been colder. I can sometimes still wear my flip flops into October but it's been too cold for them lately, lol. The temperature is pretty average for this time of year, around 16 to 19C (60 to 66F) during the day and then colder at night, about 8C/ 46F (although recently it was 6C/42F.). The highest nighttime temperature is 14C (57F). So, it's similar to last year really.

October is the time of year when I think, "Oh yes, summer and the lighter half of the year really have ended now". After the longer days of summer, I have to get adjusted to shorter days again.

The next sabbat will be Samhain (also Hallowe'en) which is my favourite sabbat apart from Lammas! (In the Southern Hemisphere it will be Beltane.) I will probably do some kind of celebration post nearer the time. I'm also planning to do my summer-autumn update soon.

Hope you had a good Madron and Happy Autumn! (Or hope you had a good Oestara/Ostara and Happy Spring!) :)

P.S. Check out last year's Madron post for some autumn inspiration (scroll to the bottom): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/10/madron-2021.html