Thanks for all the 'likes'! A few friends, from across the UK, and I are marking a similar trail, following the Japanese 72 micro-seasons, in a WhatsApp group. I collate our 'noticings' on my old blog, which canbe found at mimsy-smallstones.blogspot.com - you might be interested.
Along with all my random scribblings of over a decade, including The Lockdown Diaries 😧
my Christmas cactus deciding to flower for Samhain
the sparrows are back on the bird feeder
Noticing how different leaves fall in their own way - willow more straight down, beech more twirly, the delights of nature are new every season however old I get!
Arriving home in Sheffield after two weeks away, owls calling as we got out of the taxi. Sweeping up barrow loads of leaves for leaf mould compost, one of my favourite gardening tasks of the year. A Samhain fire in the garden last night. The clouds eventually cleared, revealing lots of stars and Jupiter shining so brightly in the sky.
Ooh I went to Sheffield a couple of weeks ago for the uni open day with my daughter and thought it was so beautiful, the perfect time to visit with all the trees looking glorious! (She loved it too!)
Oh that’s lovely to hear! I love this city, came here from Sunderland as a student, moved around a bit but always wanted to come back and we’ve lived here 28 years now. Good luck to your daughter with the whole application process.
I've been recording all of the waxcaps (and other CHEGD fungi) in the local graveyard. Yesterday there were two new additions to record; a witches hat (Hygrocybe conica) and an Earth tongue (Geoglossum sp.) poking up out of the ground.
Beautiful autumn leaves drifting through the air sunbeams and art as curating a show in Bath so enjoying an artist’s palette of pinks oranges and copper hues -the tree canopies are competing in their beauty and so we feel cheered as the leaves glimmer before darker eves and the starker outlines of our trees declare a winter time after Samhain .The Wheel of the Year continues to turn 🍁🌿🌀
Today a walk in Epping Forest, two stags and four or more does running fast through the trees across our path. Just legs and antlers and a flash of mottle through the leaves.
Our annual influx of ladybirds on the back windows. We think they over-winter in the facias on the dorma windows. It's a weird but welcome sign of the cold coming in.
We also dressed up the house and ourselves for some local trick or treating, the 5yo requesting a kraken outfit! Which saw me sewing legs and tentacles late on weds eve. And then rewarded myself with a quiet samhain tarot session with candles and a warm drink after all the fun of the evening on 31st. A new tradition I'd like to continue 🧙♀️
Roaring leaf blowers have cleared the carpet of leaves revealing parched dry ground, tree skeletons show their beautiful structure , gold and orange mums now morphed into a shadow of their former vibrancy are sitting in their clay pots waiting to be discarded but not yet, Halloween goblins are back to their other lives
Embracing dusk this year. A string of rather grey, still days, seems each to have given way to a beautiful sunset and the softest, pink sky. The tawnys begin their hooting just moments after. It's magical.
Walking through the town early evening on Hallowe'en, the houses looked so spookily festive, the park trees were silhouetted against the darkening sky and we bumped into lots of sweet little ghosts and skeletons, it was very atmospheric! At home our newly feathered rescue chickens blend beautifully with the beech leaves strewn across the grass.
The crinch crunch of leaves on a walk along the river, a flash of blue as a kingfisher darts upstream. A welcome hot chocolate on the return home.
Falling leaves abd pumpkins this week. With the shorter days getting cosy, fairy lights on and trying to remember the light will return. Eventually.
Unspooling across a perfect sky, a skein of wild geese
Thanks for all the 'likes'! A few friends, from across the UK, and I are marking a similar trail, following the Japanese 72 micro-seasons, in a WhatsApp group. I collate our 'noticings' on my old blog, which canbe found at mimsy-smallstones.blogspot.com - you might be interested.
Along with all my random scribblings of over a decade, including The Lockdown Diaries 😧
Glorious sunshine and gentle breezes with a steady drift of golden leaves, mushrooms erupting everywhere.
Alternating days of gloomy mizzle and glorious sunshine.
Newly pruned and mulched rosebeds outside a renovation project in Winchelsea; the grass and beds awash with hazel leaves at home.
my Christmas cactus deciding to flower for Samhain
the sparrows are back on the bird feeder
Noticing how different leaves fall in their own way - willow more straight down, beech more twirly, the delights of nature are new every season however old I get!
My Xmas Cactus is early too - a really cheery sight 🙂
yes nice to see it now when its not competing with all the Christmas cards!
Arriving home in Sheffield after two weeks away, owls calling as we got out of the taxi. Sweeping up barrow loads of leaves for leaf mould compost, one of my favourite gardening tasks of the year. A Samhain fire in the garden last night. The clouds eventually cleared, revealing lots of stars and Jupiter shining so brightly in the sky.
Ooh I went to Sheffield a couple of weeks ago for the uni open day with my daughter and thought it was so beautiful, the perfect time to visit with all the trees looking glorious! (She loved it too!)
Oh that’s lovely to hear! I love this city, came here from Sunderland as a student, moved around a bit but always wanted to come back and we’ve lived here 28 years now. Good luck to your daughter with the whole application process.
I've been recording all of the waxcaps (and other CHEGD fungi) in the local graveyard. Yesterday there were two new additions to record; a witches hat (Hygrocybe conica) and an Earth tongue (Geoglossum sp.) poking up out of the ground.
'Witches hat' and 'Earth tongue' - appropriate to emerge on halloween!
Beautiful autumn leaves drifting through the air sunbeams and art as curating a show in Bath so enjoying an artist’s palette of pinks oranges and copper hues -the tree canopies are competing in their beauty and so we feel cheered as the leaves glimmer before darker eves and the starker outlines of our trees declare a winter time after Samhain .The Wheel of the Year continues to turn 🍁🌿🌀
Crunching through autumn leaves with an old friend; I discovered that his newborn baby grandchild is now THIRTEEN! Where does the time go?
Today a walk in Epping Forest, two stags and four or more does running fast through the trees across our path. Just legs and antlers and a flash of mottle through the leaves.
Our annual influx of ladybirds on the back windows. We think they over-winter in the facias on the dorma windows. It's a weird but welcome sign of the cold coming in.
We also dressed up the house and ourselves for some local trick or treating, the 5yo requesting a kraken outfit! Which saw me sewing legs and tentacles late on weds eve. And then rewarded myself with a quiet samhain tarot session with candles and a warm drink after all the fun of the evening on 31st. A new tradition I'd like to continue 🧙♀️
Roaring leaf blowers have cleared the carpet of leaves revealing parched dry ground, tree skeletons show their beautiful structure , gold and orange mums now morphed into a shadow of their former vibrancy are sitting in their clay pots waiting to be discarded but not yet, Halloween goblins are back to their other lives
Embracing dusk this year. A string of rather grey, still days, seems each to have given way to a beautiful sunset and the softest, pink sky. The tawnys begin their hooting just moments after. It's magical.
Walking through the town early evening on Hallowe'en, the houses looked so spookily festive, the park trees were silhouetted against the darkening sky and we bumped into lots of sweet little ghosts and skeletons, it was very atmospheric! At home our newly feathered rescue chickens blend beautifully with the beech leaves strewn across the grass.
Rescue chickens 🥹