The Best Place for an Autumn Walk

If you want to experience autumn at its most intensely glorious, then go for a walk in the woods - my absolute favourite place to walk at this time of year.

Today it was a forest of beech and oak trees, rising steeply from the river in the valley bottom. The air smelled deliciously damp; the dogs went deliriously mad.

We slithered and slid on the wet leaves underfoot; crunched (you’ve got to crunch in autumn….) through the dry ones. Came upon a monstrous mushroom growing on a tree, high above our heads; and tiny fungi clinging to the log below. We passed two rows of giant stepping stones, spanning the water; and a statue roughly hewn from a gigantic trunk.

The light falling through the half-turned foliage was pale but it set the beech leaves sparkling; the forest floor was pure burnished copper.

I wish you could have been there. I think you would have loved it. J

Be Gentle, Go Easy

Like lots of people, I love lists. Every night I make a list of jobs for the next day. Then spend said next day chasing about, ticking them off. Only I never do tick them all off. So each night, I move the undone items onto the next day’s list. And repeat.

I’m always focused on what hasn't been done.  Always trying to catch up.  Always feeling not quite good enough.



But an interesting thing happened last week.

Besides being a list-lover, I’m also a bit of a health nut. And Tuesday and Wednesday last week had been set aside for a periodic fast and cleanse. Knowing I might have slightly less energy than usual, I’d kept my diary light and deliberately put only three or four jobs on Tuesday’s to-do list. And - this is the important bit - made a mental note to be gentle on myself.



The result? I had a lovely Tuesday! I pottered about all day long feeling relaxed and peaceful and very much as if I was ’in the right place’. Yet - extraordinarily - when I looked back at the end of the day, I had actually accomplished lots. Probably as much as in a normal, frenetic day.

In fact, without a list to go by, it seemed I’d managed to make progress in almost every area of my life. Here’s just some of what I achieved:

Website: created and put up a blog post; and had a meeting about techy, behind-the-scenes stuff with my hosting company

Studio: cleaned the windows, met with a removal man, arranged for someone to check the boiler

Piano Classes: paid some cheques into the bank and designed an advert

Retreat (yes, Dixon Hill Retreats are coming!): gathered blackberries to make jam for retreat breakfast!

Friends and Family: sent e-mails, left blog comments, bought and posted a birthday card and present, had phone conversations - including arranging a lunch date with one friend and a visit to another

Housework: laundry and a big pile of ironing

Other chores: took car to car wash, cleaned out my handbag, bought bird seed

De-cluttering: cleared one small space in my study (it’s a start!)

Health: did the fast and cleanse I set out to do



I’d also managed to listen to a radio play (one of my favourite treats), take Joss for a couple of long walks on the moors, and shoot some photographs.

And yet the whole day felt so leisurely - like a day off. No beating myself up. No chasing my tail.

Lesson learned! From now on, I’m scheduling frequent ‘gentle days’.

Hedgerow Update

The autumn hedgerow isn’t as lush or dense as its summer counterpart, but there’s fruit for the picking and sumptuous, comforting colour.

We’re at the tail end of the blackberry season, but the elderberries are only just ripening….whilst the hawthorn berries look so festive, they seem to have brought Christmas early.

As the last flowers of the year flaunt their beauty, next year’s blossoms are already in the making….the buds on the rhododendrons round and plump.

Seed heads scatter their hope on the breeze as the same wind brings leaves tumbling from the trees….down onto the now-brown bracken, the shrivelled stems of the nettles and the vibrant russet red of the rosebay willowherb foliage.

Some plants are withdrawing, some are already asleep. Those that are left are behaving with wild abandon, as late partygoers so often do.

P.S.  Today I'm taking part in Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.  Why not pop on over and take a look at some of the other lovely mosaics you'll find links to there?

I Am Grateful

I am grateful for this soft, warm bed I am grateful for the dancer within me I am grateful for the slow ticking of the clock I am grateful for the gladioli reflected in the mirror I am grateful for the grey morning light filtering through lace curtains I am grateful for the day stretching ahead

Parthenocissus

Parthenocissus: the posh name for Boston Ivy (parthenocissus tricuspidata, pictured above) and Virginia Creeper (parthenocissus quinquefolia).

Two of my favourite plants.

And this is their hour of glory...