I have unearthed my favourite green, woolen cardigan and today for the first time in many months I have worn it and the poncho and beret I made last year. There is something about these much loved garments that brings comfort – like old friends you haven’t seen for a while. And I love that it is cold enough to meet them again.
It is autumn – just over a year since we travelled back from New Zealand, and I found myself appreciating all over again how stonkingly gorgeous the changing countryside is, even though everything is withering and dying – it does it so beautifully.
This is my favourite time of the year without a doubt and I suspect that is partly because the introvert part of me likes the excuse to hide out, cwcth up ( a welsh cuddle) and hibernate. But also – I like the way the air feels when we are out walking, the crisp, clearness of it. The colder weather makes me feel more alert, almost as if there is a hint of danger, perhaps it is an ancient memory stirring – beware the cold and dark are coming.
I have to be firm with myself not to rustle up memories of childhood ghost stories when I walk the dogs in the graveyard in the gloaming, in order not to give myself the creeps..
I love the changing colours of the plants, the bright glossiness of the berries, the activity of the animals and insects as they rush to fatten themselves and to store food for the coming months.
Toastie has gone squirrel mad lately as the little, furry blighters spend as much time as possible hunting for food, often down on the ground. To our scruffy terrier, squirrels are fair game as well as very annoying, the way they sit up on their branches making harsh cawing noises at her and giving her the furry finger, so she rushes up and down the woodland river banks peering up in the trees with not a hope in hell of catching anything.
Watching The Wheels 