Days getting shorter

I am on holiday for a whole week while Abby and Alex are at school! Not that they are happy about it... But it has given me time to get my eyes checked, my hair cut, a bit of shopping done, cleaning done, and today, a beautiful walk with the Noggin (the dog).

I am still quite besotted with Frodo. And with the English countryside. And with sunshine...

As the days being to shorten, I am clingin onto any chances to be outside and not wet/freezing. I have enjoyed the apples, the blackberries, the leaves changing colour, and the chance to put on boots and scarves again. I have also welcomed back the TV programmes that come on in the autumn. I am trying to be glad of the change of seasons... to enjoy how they mark out our year and complement each other and give us a chance to see new things, to see the cycle of life...

But really, I would like it to be spring and then summer all year round. OK, a sunny autumn like this one is actually fine, even lovely. But, I don't want the Winter!!! I am dreading the dark, cold afternoons.  
Perhaps I need to learn to live each day in all its beauty, and not think ahead so much to what is coming. And this autumn is really beautiful.

A Gorgeous, Sunshiny November Afternoon

Today there was time for my favourite walk of all with Frodo...

We started off at Over Farm (owned by distant cousins of mine),

... passing the now wild strawberry fields, leaves turned autumn red...

... up the lane towards the scary oak...

...  furry Old Man's Beard in the hedge...

... and, unexpectedly, masses of spindle berries, (I had to look them up)...

Naughty, waggy-tailed Frodo ran ahead into the woods, only stopping to look back and then run on...

... loving the sun shining onto a maple tree...

... and highlighting Gloucester Cathedral, a heavenly building pointing up to heaven ...

We were ten minutes late picking up Alex from school, but, it was worth it.

Seasons are all very well but

When I remembered the joys of sunshine and warmth on your skin, when summer started (not that it ever came to much!), when the light grew brighter and I realised how much I had missed it for all those darker months, I already began to feel a teeny worm of dread for the winter to come, the one that lay ahead. So I was taken by surprise when, as the air felt suddenly cooler and leaves began to blow around, that I was actually a bit excited about the change of season. The Bramley apples growing again in our garden, mulberries on a massive tree in the college grounds, leaves turning to red orange and brown, pulling cosy scarves out of the drawer ... OK change is not so bad after all.

But, there are a couple of things I could do without. One is the horrible cough and cold which all of the family have got. I seem to have it worst at the moment. My voice has gone away to nothing. And I am coughing like a dirty old man. My throat is itchy and sore at the same time. Poor me!

The other annoying thing is the way our car steams up. I have noticed it is worse than other cars, and I have discovered that Renaults have a quirk in the air conditioning which means that water gets stuck in it and makes the car fog up. Last winter we kept a towel in the car and had to wipe the windows down every time we got in. This year I have bought a dehumidifier for the car, which is like a fat cushion which absorbs moisture - so far it has worked well.

But, in the spirit of counting a thousand gifts, this post is not going too well... Later in Ann Voskamp's book "A Thousand Gifts" you find out with her that we have to thank God for the "ugly-beautiful" things as well, knowing that all of it is God-given and that he has a plan and loves us. So said with gritted teeth, "Thanks for colds and thanks for fogged-up windows... but yuk!"

A couple of seasonal things I have listed though:
Purple bobbles of blackberries and red ovals of rose hips growing in the tangly hedges.
The Cathedral bells ringing in the dusk from the heart of the city.
The sound of wind caught in an oak tree in an autumn lane.