Monday...

Last week I got a bit caught up with sending out masses of my calendars...it was one of those things I thought would take a whole day, and which actually took nearly a whole week!

The other thing I’m currently working on at the moment is my new blog...

I’m moving everything over to Wordpress, and weirdly I’m actually quite enjoying the re-categorising and organising of posts and images...it feels a bit like re-decorating the house...

The blog ( which is www.5ftinf.com ) may well be ready by sometime this week, although it is already live...just not quite finished/re-decorated, so this is just a little heads up that things will be changing a bit and hopefully you’ll be able to all shift over with me...

The temperature has definitely changed over the last week. 

The seasons are gently moving; cranberries are appearing at the grocers, I lit a fire for the first time this season and I’ve worn gloves twice...

I thought it would be a great idea to roast the giant chestnuts I’d bought from the green grocers, but unfortunately I forgot to cut them, and they loudly exploded over the fire guard, narrowly missing the cat!

I did manage to scrape a bit of the soft chestnut, which was left, out of the shell, and sprinkle it with salt, so at least I got a small taste of the Winter to come...which is probably all I want just at the moment!

Tuesday...

Westonbirt Tree Arboretum in Autumn is one of those places which sum up childhood for me...

My parents used to take us virtually every year and I was always aware of how much my dad loved it...( usually the only things he became really enthusiastic about were electronics, radios, phones and batteries! )

I loved it too, and I still endeavour to visit every Autumn, although some years  I don’t make it...

( 1976: Me, my brother and my Dad in front of a tree that we always look for...and never find, probably because it’s much bigger now! )

( ...could this be it? )

We went a little early this year ( the 3rd weekend in October is notoriously colourful ), but it was still one of the best Autumn days out of 2014...

...And I’m also pretty sure I discovered what that mystery nut I found last month was!!

I saw the tree and the nuts at the arboretum, and as every tree has a label in Latin, I photographed it, looked it up and it was...Hickory! ( the leaves didn’t seem to match the ones from before, but it must be a type of Hickory )

Westonbirt is a wonderful place where nature’s colours are at their best, and I’ve been coming home in the car with leaves, chestnuts, lichen and sticks stuffed into my hat, wellies and various pockets since the early ’70’s!

Saturday...

This week has been dark and rainy...

It always feels strange when the light changes in the mornings...I’m a very early riser and I really miss the light mornings of Summer...

However Autumn holds such amazing colour, and even with rain preventing me from being in the garden more at the moment, there’s something cosy, reflective and completely fulfilling to the senses about it....

I went out early this morning, even though it was still quite dark and the starlings were chattering like mad ahead of their Autumnal murmurations...

There was a big storm last night so the garden was soaked...

( This is my new Autumn purchase by the way, as the old one wasn’t going to withhold another season! )

I burn a lot of my garden waste and then use the ash to dig into the garden during the spring as it helps with soil drainage, and I also love the fact that I dig everything back in to where it started from....

The nasturtiums are, of course, going strong and I’m still picking loads of them, but the rain last night had weighed them down and damaged them a little...

They will basically keep going until the first frost, which then kills them all in one morning!

...so the snails have only got a few weeks left!

(I took this picture yesterday, before the rain...)

but it is the way their leaves hold the rain which was my inspiration this morning...