At this time of the year, in this part of the earth, nature is full of vibrant colours, this is just one example of our colourful garden at the moment, .
Autumn activities include planting broad beans and sewing Christmas presents for my grandchildren.Around the end of October here in Ireland people celebrate the ancient Halloween, and lots of different pumpkins are for sale, this delights me as I love the soup that one can make using them, and also they are very decorative so when used in that capacity for weeks in our kitchen they paint a lovely picture.
European cyclamen
My three youngest grandchildren came to stay with us and I introduced them to a new activity. I took them for a walk at twilight. They had to take note of all the sounds they heard (I was thinking in terms of evening birds) I was surprised at the list of sounds they presented me with, which included a lawnmower among other things. I love our hydrangeas, and have now built up a variety of colours, from lapis lazuli blue to baby pink they flower well into winter here.
Mint harvest
Last weekend the hour was set back and so now the evenings are dark earlier, this means cosy evenings inside while the weather rages, I do love autumn and winter partly for this, but mostly for the colours.Morning dew on the spider webs creating a fairy-land picture, however it also shows us how many active spiders are around us playing an important role in the ecology of things.
Young pine growing in the garden
One of the things going on in our life for the past month is the laying of a wooden floor in the conservatory. It’s caused some big challenges, but my dear brother Patrick has come to help and the work is, though not quite, almost finished. Shorter days, longer nights, and lovely sunsets are all part of autumn.
Hawthorn berries and ivy growing together and providing not only food for birds, but also a habitat for some butterflies to lay their eggs.
This is our Mediterranean oak tree. Last year we got it pruned back severely as the tree was quite high and leaning over precariously. During the past summer months it has grown enormously well and is now giving us a lovely display of autumn leaves.
We have been experiencing very wet weather with strong winds during the past two weeks, the front garden is now full of leaves which I do not want to gather yet, they will be used as mulching on the vegetable beds, but I have also recently learned that they can be the homes of many different little creatures and so I want to give them a chance at survival and only carefully lift them at a later stage. I’m also happy to see that our winter birds have returned to the bird feeder, the finches, sparrows, robins, jackdaws, collared doves, all the various tits and the dunnocks are back, and to my delight I’ve spotted a very active wren, one of my favourite birds. Yes for sure this is a great time of the year! Happy autumn to everyone, I hope that you enjoyed the little peek into my life at present.
Fall is such a lovely time, time to cosy up inside with tea, soup and crafts. Your newly laid floor must smell good 🙂 I love the smell of fresh lumber!
A delightful post, I enjoyed reading it. I especially like the idea of the twilight walk and will do the same when my grandchildren come next time. They went home yesterday!
Thank you Andrew, I’m delighted that you enjoyed reading about the twilight walk, it really is lovely, but then I already used to love twilight as a child while playing outside with my siblings 🙂 Enjoy with your grandchildren.
Fall is such a lovely time, time to cosy up inside with tea, soup and crafts. Your newly laid floor must smell good 🙂 I love the smell of fresh lumber!
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Yes fall is beautiful Eliza. And yes the scent of the wood is very attractive, the wood has enhanced the whole room too 🙂
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A delightful post, I enjoyed reading it. I especially like the idea of the twilight walk and will do the same when my grandchildren come next time. They went home yesterday!
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Thank you Andrew, I’m delighted that you enjoyed reading about the twilight walk, it really is lovely, but then I already used to love twilight as a child while playing outside with my siblings 🙂 Enjoy with your grandchildren.
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Your images of Fall brings back my memories of living in the North.
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Delighted for you, I do hope they are lovely memories ❤
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Lovely photographs. What a stunning set of freckles on that hydrangea.
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And what a nice way of putting it Derrick, thank you .
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🙂
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what a great activity to do with your grandchildren… must remember that!
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It was lovely Vanessa, it also reminded me of when I was young – in a very pleasant way.
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