The Seasonal Life: Summer-Autumn Update (2024) + Happy Samhain/Hallowe'en!

It's October once again and time for my summer-autumn update! You can see my previous updates for 2024 at the links below:

Winter-Spring Update (2024) https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/04/winter-spring-update-2024.html

Spring-Summer Update (2024) + Happy Lammas! https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/07/spring-summer-update-2024-happy-lammas.html

I've also included a section with Samhain/Hallowe'en inspiration, so scroll down to the bottom for that. :)

In mid-July I went to a belly dance event called Yallabina!, which was co-hosted by Nadia Undine whose classes I've been to. I watched performances and danced a bit at the end. It was the first time I'd danced this year, so it was nice to get back to it.

At the beginning of August I celebrated Lammas. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/08/lammas-2024.html

Then in mid-August I went to Five Guys at Brighton Marina. I got a burger and chips (fries), Coke and a chocolate milkshake.

Here are a couple of photos I took at the marina:

Then in mid-late September it was Madron aka Mabon/the Autumn Equinox. You can read my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/09/madron-2024.html

I went to Hove Park around sunset as part of my celebrations. Here is a pic that I didn't include in the post:

Tree changing colour in Hove Park.

As I said in my Easing into Autumn post in September, it didn't feel like much of a summer in some ways. It took a while to really warm up and then was hotter and sunnier sometimes, but quite cold and rainy other times. It was said to be the coolest summer since 2015.

By mid-September it was really feeling like autumn. Some years it stays quite warm during September and into October (and we have had more hot weather occasionally) but this year it continued to get colder. At the moment it's about 15C (58F) during the day in Sussex and colder at night, about 10C (50F). (Down to 6C/42F occasionally.) I think it's about average for this time of year.

Food wise, I made a Cameroonian salad in July, a recipe from Precious of Precious Core. I was looking forward to making it because I'm part Cameroonian. I've spent the majority of my life with my British family, so I didn't grow up making Cameroonian food. Here's the recipe: https://www.preciouscore.com/cameroonian-vegetable-salad-and-salad-cream-video/

I didn't enjoy it as much as Precious' other salad recipes (like kachumbari). Mainly because I found the salad cream dressing a bit rich when I had more than a bit of it. So if I make this again, I'd maybe make less of the dressing. But it's nice to try new things.

I've also made smashed roasted potato salad for my tea (dinner) a couple of times. I found it through Michelle of Daisy Butter. (She mentioned it and I asked her for the recipe.) :) It's from the site Brown Girl Vegan: https://browngirlveganeats.com/viral-smashed-roasted-potato-salad/

Note: When I first went on the Brown Girl Vegan website I was getting antivirus warnings but I haven't had any lately.

I'm not vegan so I used "ordinary" mayonnaise for the recipe. I also left out the mustard because I wasn't that bothered about using it, but I'll probably include it another time. I used gherkins instead of dill pickles because they're more readily available in the UK (at least in the supermarkets I go to). I don't think they're that different though, gherkins (or pickles) just don't have the dill herb in them.

I recommend this potato salad, it suits both vegans and non-vegans. Ramya (the blogger) says that it's gluten free as long as your mayonnaise brand doesn't have gluten in. I ate it with fried chicken strips/chicken tenders but obviously if you're vegetarian or vegan, you'd have it with something else!

I didn't do much baking apart from what I usually do for the sabbats, but I did bake Nutella brownies in September. It's a 3 ingredient recipe from The Comfort of Cooking that I've made a few times before: https://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2014/09/incredible-3-ingredient-nutella-brownies.html

They don't have any frosting/icing but I wanted some, so used the frosting recipe from the lunch lady brownies that I baked last year. It went quite well with the Nutella brownies. Here's the lunch lady brownie recipe from Southern Cooks: https://thesouthernladycooks.com/lunch-lady-brownies/

As I mentioned in my spring-summer update, I made a couple of Vietnamese style iced coffees. I like to make them at home during the warmer months. I've also been liking Wendy's chocolate Frostyccinos, although sometimes the Frosty part seems to have not been mixed so well or evaporated, so it tastes more like a standard iced coffee.

Also, Starbucks became available on Deliveroo in my area, which made it much easier than having to go to the nearest one by bus!

When it started getting colder during September, I transitioned into making hot chocolate. One of my favourite recipes is based on a French hot chocolate one, which I first made in 2019.

So that's it for the summer-autumn update! It ended up being a longer one than I thought. Hope you've had a good summer and your autumn is going well. (Or hope you've had a good winter and your spring is going well, depending where you live.) :)

Read: Godmersham Park by Gill Hornby, You Are a F*cking Success by Noor Hibbert (non-fiction book about manifesting/the Law of Attraction), Looker by Laura Sims (really enjoyed this), Such a Bad Influence by Olivia Muenter and Into the Magic Shop by Dr James Doty (another self-help/non-fiction book that covers spiritual and LOA type subjects).

Note: I'd heard about Such a Bad Influence on a few lifestyle blogs and thought it sounded interesting,. But I was a bit disappointed with it, to be honest. It's a good subject (about online influencers, children growing up in the limelight and social media in general), but I just didn't find it that great. I didn't really felt that connected with the characters. It was a good twist at the end though!

Links I found useful during summer and autumn:

Post from Jeanette of Good Vibe Blog about when positive thinking isn't working while manifesting: https://www.goodvibeblog.com/when-being-positive-isnt-working/

Dwell in Magic (Jessica Dimas) post about letting life be easy: https://jessicadimas.com/let-life-be-easy/

I also found some helpful videos on Mae Alice Suzuki's YouTube channel. She covers topics such as self-help, personal development and manifesting. Visit/subscribe to her channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@MaeAliceSuzuki

P.S. Here are a few other links with autumn inspiration:

Post by Carly Riordan with ideas for activites to do duing "cosy/cozy season": https://carlyriordan.com/cozy-season-activities.html

Autumn Reset: 10 Cozy Ways to Rebalance (Self-Love Rainbow: https://www.selfloverainbow.com/autumn-reset-10-cozy-ways-to-rebalance/

Post by Adriana Tudorache about slow living lessons from the harvest (spanning from August to October): https://yrstudio.co.uk/blogs/adriana-tudorache-blog/lessons-from-harvest-slow-living

Happy Samhain/Hallowe'en!

Also it's Samhain on Thursday (31st October). It's my favourite sabbat (apart from Lammas!) and I also celebrate Hallowe'en. While I'm no longer writing in-depth posts about celebration ideas for the sabbats, sometimes I share a few links with ideas at the bottom of my update posts. (As I did with last year's summer-autumn update.)

This spring and summer I wrote two posts about salads to make for Beltane and Litha (plus extra ideas) because I felt inspired to. Maybe in the future I'll do a baking post for Samhain (like I have for Lammas and Madron). But this year I thought I'd just share a few links with inspiration for the festival. :)

Here are some links with ideas for celebrating:

Samhain/Hallowe'en Round-up (my round-up post from 2021): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/10/samhainhalloween-round-up.html

Happy Samhain/Hallowe'en! (my post from 2022): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/10/happy-samhainhalloween.html

20 Samhain Celebration Ideas (that aren't all about Halloween): https://www.themoonschool.org/seasonal/20-samhain-celebration-ideas-halloween/

Samhain Traditions- 3 Simple Ways to Celebrate Halloween and Samhain: https://thesmallestlight.co.uk/samhain-traditions-three-simple-ways-to-celebrate-halloween/

Things Kids Can Do on Samhain: https://witchymagicks.com/things-that-kids-can-do-on-samhain/

Samhain Rituals for Releasing the Past Year: https://bryjaimea.com/witchcraft/wheel-year-festivals/samhain-rituals-for-releasing-the-past-year/

Vegan Samhain Soul Cakes Recipe: https://tiredwitch.com/2019/10/26/vegan-samhain-soul-cakes-recipe/amp/

Recipes to Celebrate Samhain: https://awesomeon20.com/recipes-to-celebrate-samhain/

Or if you're in the Southern Hemisphere, here are my most recent Beltane posts:

My 2021 Beltane round-up (also my Winter-Spring 2021 update): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/04/winter-spring-update-beltane-round-up.html

Happy Beltane! (2022 post): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/04/happy-beltane.html