How to make a pumpkin bird feeder

Don't ditch the Halloween pumpkin just yet... Give it a new lease of life in the garden as a pumpkin bird feeder. Pumpkins spend all summer ballooning into huge, majestic,super-squash, then come autumn, most are either made into soup or carved into a lantern at Hallowe’en. These heavyweights of the fruit world – they often reach 35kg – have a rigid shell that’s great for hacking into. This year, why not carve out a new purpose for your pumpkin, as a bird feeder?

Here’s how:

1. Cut a 2kg pumpkin in half across its equator, scoop out the seeds but leave behind a wall of pumpkin flesh, around 2cm thick.

2. Cut a 1.5cm deep groove in the rim, then push the pumpkin seeds into the rim, making an attractive and edible border.

3. Create perches for robins, blackbirds and sparrows, which like to sit and eat, rather than hang, off a feeder. Poke holes into the pumpkin skin using a skewer or sharp knife and push twigs and sticks into them for perches.

4. Knot two lengths of twine or string together in the centre, then tack the knot of both lengths to the bottom of the pumpkin feeder, using a drawing pin. This creates a hanging basket effect.

5. Fill with seed and watch your birdie friends tuck in.

Want more Halloween reads? Take our Wicca quiz and find out which witch you are, or preserve your pumpkins with pride.

Passing on traditions: New boots

So shiny, not a mark on them. And all that leather, suede or, for the extrovert, patent. Your little bitty strappy sandals are all very well but with a pair of boots there’s far more shoe to show-off and tell. New boots are reassuringly expensive. Guilt-free, too: Fashion maths dictates that boots x per wear = good value. Is it the knowledge you’ll soon be in so-cosy woolly tights again or the fact that you can wear them every day till March that sends us skipping to the shops? Ooh, and that big box to take them home in. Nice.

Shallow, us? This is a seasonal ritual to be undertaken alongside harvest festivals and leaf kicking – maybe not in your splendid new boots though.

Our favourite winter boots, clockwise from top left:

1. UGG Kensington 1969 boots, £120, John Lewis

2. Horrigan boots, £150, Hudson

3. Nautical knee boots, £98, Office

4. Chelsea boots, £120, Timberland

5. Peu boots, £155, Camper

6. Grace ii boots, £90, Red or Dead

Want, knead, love: Real, down-to-earth bread baking

There's something about bread that is so fundamental, so magical, so right. Our passionate baker boy, Alex Gooch, is here to pass on his bread baking knowhow.

Meet Alex Gooch, our new baker boy, in the first of his new series about baking bread.

“Good bread takes patience, passion and instinct. Making it brings you into the moment completely. It stimulates all of the senses, whether it be the feel of the dough, the sweet smell of the baking bread, or the crackle as you squeeze a ciabatta. “When I was growing up, my brothers and I ate toast, toast and more toast! And that was about as close to bread as I got until I started as a kitchen porter when I was doing my A levels. “I loved the camaraderie of the kitchen and felt at home there. They offered to train me, so I ditched the idea of college and settled into the chef’s life of long hours and a surrogate family of fellow foodies. “I liked baking bread and worked at a few Italians where I mastered focaccia pretty well and at hotels I made plenty of pastry and croissants. But it was while at Penrhos Court in Herefordshire that I started experimenting, encouraged by chef Daphne lambert (who I named my first sourdough starter after). In 2007 she let me take over one of the kitchens at night and this was my first bakery. I began selling bread and jams at farmers’ markets and food festivals, then the following year I opened my bakery called Alex Gooch Artisan Baker in Hay-on-Wye. “There are so many possibilities with bread: rye sourdough, mixed grain, ciabatta, brioche but one of the things that keeps me excited and inspired is following the seasons, and letting them dictate the bread I make. It turns out that pink fir apple potatoes make the most scrumptious potato and onion bread, and the magical cep makes a mind-blowing garlic and cep foccacia with herb oil. “Baking is a hard job – pulling all-nighters and the need to step up a gear when things are busy. But baking at home is different: one of the reasons I think it is now so popular is because the results are so rewarding. The process is so enjoyable, too. It is very natural; you can listen to the radio or chill out for a while – bread is at its best when it is left to rest a lot.”

Turn to page 49 of October's The Simple Things for Alex's seasonal bread bakes, including Black garlic flatbread with sesame, nigella and a kale, miso dressing; Roast pumpkin and apple rolls; and Plum and ginger bread with a cider and honey glaze.

Buy or download your copy now.

Alex Gooch supplies restaurants, hotels, delis, functions and events and sells at markets in different towns four days a week. He also runs bread-making courses: www.alexgoochbaker.com. Tweet Alex @alexgoochbaker to let him know how your bread bakes.

Go meteor-spotting this month

Head outside and enjoy the show! Find out how to spot meteors with our guide.

The annual Draconids and Orionids meteor showers come to town this month. Here's what to expect...

Draconids

Around ten meteors an hour, but some years feature meteor storms with hundreds an hour.

When: peaking in the early evening on 7 and 8 October - no need to stay up late to spot them!

Orinids

Around 15 meteors an hour, produced by the debris stream from Halley's Comet, with occasional bright fireballs.

When: 20 and 21 October.

Astronomical glossary

Asteroid: rocky, smaller than a planet and very old; often left over from the formation of the Solar System.

Meteor: an asteroid that burns and vaporises as it enters the earth's atmosphere; AKA a shooting star.

Meteorite: any meteor that survives the plunge through the atmosphere and lands on the surface of the Earth.

Comet: a relatively small odd that orbits the Sun, displaying a fuzzy outline and sometimes a tail.

The Simple Things guide to meteor-spotting is part of October's Miscellany: a curious combination of the practical and the playful. Turn to page 123 of The Simple Things for more. Buy or download your copy now.

And look out for November's The Simple Things - stargazing and a trip to the moon and stars!

Image: The radiant meteor storm of 9 October 1933, Larousse Encyclopedia of Astronomy, found on Pinterest.

Wool Week: Join The Wool Ride

Join fellow yarn-fans this weekend for the capital's Wool Ride in celebration of Wool Week.

The Simple Things team is a woolly bunch - we love natural materials. This Sunday, get on your bike and join fellow wool-clad cyclists for The Wool Ride.

Help launch Wool Week in a frenzy of fibre as over 300 wool loving cyclists from across the country gather in London for a one of a kind experience. Starting and finishing at Potters Fields on Sunday 5th October, the bicycle ride will journey through some of the streets made famous by London’s most prominent wool supporters, including the archetypal Jermyn Street.

Take in some of London’s key sights and hotspots, passing through iconic scenery such as London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, Westminster, Knightsbridge, Park Lane and Regent Street. The ride starts at 9am (running until 2pm - the 13.4 mile ride should take around 1 hour 38 minutes), taking riders along a meandering route with time to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the sights of the capital at a leisurely pace. On arrival at Potters Fields, give your bike a temporary makeover with the ‘Woolen Cycle Workshop.’ Here, teams of cycle creatives will be on hand to give bikes the ultimate makeover for a chance to win the award for best bicycle. And don't forget to wear your best woollen knits as there is an award for best dressed up for grabs.

Find out more about The Wool Ride.

Want more wool? Celebrate cosy and cool Fair Isle knits with us - turn to page 22 of October's The Simple Things. And join the queen of sheepskin, Kath Whitworth, as she shares her day in cups of tea (page 56).

Buy or download your copy now.

Plants for free: How to collect seeds

The flowering season may be coming to an end but there is still abundance in the garden. This is the time to collect seeds, propagate and divide.

October is the time to harvest a different sort of crop: seeds, cuttings and divided plants to fill the garden with colour next year. Here’s how to go about it...

Collect your own seeds

Set off with a brown paper bag, a pair of scissors and a skip in your step. If you want to bulk up stocks of a favourite plant or ensure new supplies of an annual, now’s the time to collect their seeds. Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea), love-in-a-mist (nigella damascena), cosmos (cosmos bipinnatus) and honesty (lunaria annua) are ideal for beginners and will easily store and germinate the following spring. However, there are many other annuals as well as perennials, biennials, alpines, ornamental grasses, vegetables, herbs and some trees and shrubs that can all be grown from seed that you’ve collected.

1 Choose your plants carefully

Go for strong, healthy ones as they’re likely to have good- quality seed. However, be aware if they’re hybrids (specially bred plants that are unlikely to have the same qualities as the parent plant) rather than species, as the plant won’t “come true” from seed. In the case of hybrids, either buy new plants the following year or be prepared for the collected seeds to produce something completely different from this year’s plants.

2 Collect the seeds

Once you’ve decided which plants you’re saving seed from, the trick is to collect it just before it has dispersed. It’s a bit of a waiting game, but once the seed head has ripened and changed colour (from green to brown, black or red) and is dry and crisp, it’s time to spring into action. Pick individual seed heads and use separate paper bags for each species or, if they’ll come away easily, place a paper bag over the seed head and gently shake.

3 Dry the seeds

Once you’ve gathered all the seeds you want, lay them out on a warm windowsill or a greenhouse bench – you can even find a spot in the airing cupboard. You need to give them time to dry out so you can get to the seed more easily. Clean away the ‘chaff’ or casing until you’re left with just the seed. Check to see which seeds you’ve collected and if they need to be sown straight away. Hellebores, for example, can be stored to sow next spring when the weather warms up.

4 Transfer your seeds into individual paper packets and label them

You’ll be surprised how satisfying this is. Keep them in an airtight container and, if you have any sachets of silica gel from new shoes or bags, place a couple in with the seeds to absorb excess moisture, which would otherwise cause the seeds to rot. If not, add a handful or two of rice to the container and find a spot for the container in the fridge.

Want more? Turn to page 97 of October's The Simple Things. Buy or download your copy now.