Saturday 21.11.2020

 That self-satisfied feeling when you`ve made the best of the day: brisk walk, shower, delicious homemade (before the walk) carrot and lentil soup and just about to settle down to watch the rugby.

Smug-ometer up to 11.

A beautiful day for walking, sunshine, blue sky and a keen swirly wind setting the metal gates singing, the wooden gates creaking and the trees swooshing and swishing.  Warmed up by the time we got up to the woods so sweater and scarf discarded in the entry.

 Haven`t had anything half-inched so far: frankly if folk are desperate enough to take my old sweater they`re welcome to it though I`d miss the scarf......

Though it was only just after midday the shadows were long......

.....the light diffused, perfectly setting off the autumn colours.

 

As I write, the sun is nearly below the horizon spreading yet more glorious colours across the sky - golden at the moment - it was all scarlet last night - and soon it will be dark enough to justify a wee dram and maybe some crisps - it is Saturday after all. I can wait `til half time I suppose. Autumn. What`s not to like?

Tuesday 17.11.2020

 Very curious weather patterns: so mild today but with sleet and possibly snow forecast for Thursday. 

 Tonight up on the hill  the insects buzzed round the newly emerged gorse flowers making it all feel like a late summer evening, despite the lowering grey clouds while at the same time the crows made their evening commute across the sky to their roosts - a typical auttumn activity and the silhouettes were all about the impending winter.  

In another age it could be taken to presage all sorts of things....but then we are in the middle of a plague aren`t we so who knows..........

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Tuesday 10.11.2020

 For the last two or three days, morning and night, we have been enveloped in a shawl of thick grey cloud. Some days it has lifted long enough to let the sun through for an hour or so but not today.

So it was cool and still grey, though the cloud had lifted a tad, when Dog 2 and I stepped out this afternoon for a stride round the woods. And in the damp, sharp air it was the scents of autumn that were the most striking: decay, degradation, mould and spoilage and yet somehow nostalgic and exhilarating. The only thing missing was a whiff of wood smoke.

So many sides to autumn too: days like today but also still-warm sun, long shadows, crimson skies, copper leaves, sparkling spiders` webs, golden stubble and that cry of wild geese overhead.  Never quite knowing what each day will bring, `tis my favourite season.

Friday 30.10.2020

 Can never really understand why there`s not more people in the woods on an afternoon like this (not complaining though.)

A relatively calm walk, just one dog and me, after lots of more companionable ones over the last few weeks, with various permutations of people and animals.

Perfect autumn conditions, light and colour and crunchy leaves. Balm.

P.S. Half seven on Saturday morning: blowing a hooley out there this morning with curtains of rain sweeping across the top hill. Dogs wet butnevertheless remarkably happy. We should take leaves out of their books (though they won`t be very crunchy ones this morning).Playing in for a bit anyway.

Tuesday 20.10.2020

We ventured out this afternoon. The rain had stopped, finally. The sun came out and it was very warm. Everything steamed gently - the road, the trees, the grass. It could have been the tropics. 

Except it smelt like autumn. And it looked like autumn. 

And now it`s raining again.

Saturday 17.10.20

 Another morning in the cloud.  This time of year never quite sure what the day will bring, forecasts notwithstanding. 

Thursday for example started off as grey as the preceding and following days but by the time we set off for the woods in the afternoon the sun had snuck out from behind the cloud and briefly lit up the world: slanting shadows across still green grass and trees on the turn.

Since then though it`s been grey, still and damp - but not cold. If the sun was out the hundreds of spider`s webs which always seem to be a feature of autumn would be shimmering and glittering(are they there all year round and we just can`t see them or are the spiders particularly busy at this time of year?)  As it is they glimmer through the gloom like so many little net baskets.

Friday 9.10.20

 Coming towards the end of a week`s Cat-sitting in the Cotswolds (sounds like the title of a story). The cats contrary to expectations perhaps, have behaved impeccably and half way through the week it became clear they were actually keeping vigil for the return of their owners - sorry, servants - and were not vying for my attention, as long as I fed them on a regular basis.

Which left me the luxury of reading, writing and simply staring out of the window in this bosky little spot......

......and walking of course.

Lots of little strolls around and about .......  

....but then on Wednesday afternoon, a pitch perfect autumn day, a longer stroll along footpaths through woods illuminated perfectly by the later-in-the-year light 

though many of the trees are still gloriously green.  

Along noisy, splashing brooks, past smoother stretches of water 

 

and back across the fields.

It`s a pretty part of the world indeed but tomorrow I head back to the far north, pretty too but a bit less kempt maybe - oh and the dogs. Will never really get used to walking without dogs.