Autumn Miscellany

Hello Friends!

Autumn weather with all it's many changeable moods and unreliability is well and truly upon us.  If you don't like it, wait a few minutes and it will surely change!  One day it is raining and blowing, the next it is calm, the sun shines in a blue sky and those are the days when housework can wait!  If the weather is good I will abandon the cleaning and get myself wrapped up and outside, camera in hand, and off I go.  I can only manage shorter walks of a couple of miles, and not too many hills, for this virus lingers and has knocked me sideways; after two months I have to do what I can to regain my stamina for longer walks with hills.

Steel grey stems with silvery spider webs strewn across a skeletal seed head sitting, shimmering in the afternoon sunshine

Happily I wander, following my feet, one step after another is all it takes, as I meander along the old and ancient pilgrim path that follows a twisting river valley floor.  Autumn sun shines from a clear, pale blue sky and gimmers through the shady trees so tall

Meanwhile, in my cottage garden rose hips and Cotoneaster berries, richly ripe and ruby red, provide a forage feast for birds, as they bring a last firework burst of colour to the borders.

Tread lightly, go carefully, for around our feet lie the homes of fairy folk!

A muted morning Autumn light, a quality that softens the landscape all around

High in the tree tops by a babbling brook the pinecones hang and droop. Tempting morsels for the squirrels to feast upon as they nimbly climb and scurry to the topmost branches.

Along a mossy topped wall hide tiny leaves of penny wort

In the high street, delightful Autumn pumpkins sit outside the local vegetable shop.  Who will buy?

Until next time
Deborah xo

Tea and This n That

Hello Friends!

I could scarce believe, when I looked this morning, that it is a month since I last wrote here.  I have been unwell since the last week of August, and cannot fathom how the last six weeks have flown by.  I am thankful to say I am now, as my doctor puts it, convalescing, and feeling much more myself.  Enough said!

In the middle of being poorly, my gas boiler bit the bullet and needed to be replaced, and I don't want to discuss the mess, the upheaval, and especially the expense of that evolution, not to mention that they have already had to visit to repair a brand new boiler!! Again, enough said, and moving on!

I am grateful that, despite having lost weeks off work, I am now able to get out and about for walks.  We have had some quite nasty weather, so right now I am making the most of the few and far between gentle Autumn days before the gales and late Autumn weather come upon us for the duration.

As you know, I love to write short passages of descriptive narrative, so while I sit and sip on my new favourite tea, Orange Gingerbread from Whittards of Chelsea, I shall draw upon some of the words I have written on my Twitter account in the past month, with the accompanying photos.  Due to not having the Twitter constraints of 280 characters, the words may be a little reworked from there.

This sweet card accompanied my recent purchase.

In an effort to help minimise plastic waste, I have just purchased boxes of loose leaf tea and a new, sweet little individual infuser.  So much bad publicity surrounding even premium tea bags, I feel I must stop using them.

Weave cobwebs fine when the moon is full and strew them with the silvery midnight dew, then will they shimmer; then will they shine, and by the coming light of dawn a gossamer fine fairy shawl of sparkling crystal raiment drapes; beware! within such beauty hides the thorny stems of roses fair, and somewhere waits to pounce a spider from this fairest lair. 

An Autumn morning rises silently over the sleepy village nesting on a hill, slowly wakened by a pale and mellow sun. A soft light, an early morning mist, a world painted with the subtle hues of Autumn, and a feeling in the air that words cannot describe, but it touches your heart and you know it is there.  The wind and rain have gone, leaving everything sparkling and fresh; the sky is blue; the sun shines. It's a beautiful, perfect Autumn day in the Shire, my friends.

A wild wind whistles across Whitesands Beach, watching the wide horizon while white ocean waves from the cold, deep grey sea crash upon the sandy, rock strewn shore. Cotton puff clouds scud and billow quickly in a soft blue sky and a lone swimmer braves the surf. It's an Autumn day in wutheringly wonderful west Wales, so wrap up warmly.

These were taken on the tail end of Hurricane Lorenzo, which was thankfully downgraded substantially by the time it arrived on the western shores of Great Britain.

The bounty of blackberries, shiny jewels of the hedgerows continued to give of their best for weeks and weeks, swollen by the plentiful rain, and ripened to sweet perfection by the gentle Autumn sunshine 

Beautiful Kaffir Lilies, also called Hesperantha, arrived unexpectedly in my garden in an abandoned pot, a gift from a passing bird, no doubt.

As I started to feel better, I managed to put up a few small Autumn themed decorations on my mantel

and I love how it looks in the evening, all by candle light aglow

and a final photo from my porch 

Until next time
Deborah xo