Howzat!

There's an Autumnal feel in the air.....

This week, I have been mostly:

- going to my first cricket match

- noticing signs of Autumn sniffing at Summer's heels

- studying seed heads (still)

- dealing with a wasps nest in the roof

- seeing my first fungi of the year

- decorating

- making enough Ragu to feed half of Italy

- making enough Ratatouille to feed half of France

- writing about religion (I wrote about storage today, I haven't been given my next subject yet)

- learning to play the keyboard!

Friday -

Sarah has always wanted to go to a live cricket match so I agreed to go to Twenty20 cricket with her.  I'll try anything once, so I thought I'd give it a go.  New experiences and all that.  I am sport-phobic but I was interested in a social science/people watching kind of way.  It was great, I didn't have the faintest clue as to what was going on but I enjoyed holding up my piece of card with a number four one side and a number six on the other, and waving my little flag.  I actually enjoyed watching the cricket. There's something exciting about being in a large venue with fifteen thousand people all cheering at once.  The only thing that spoilt it was a group of rather inebriated men behind us who spent the whole time shouting "Alan, Alan, ALAN!!!!". They were hoarse by the end of the game when their friend Alan finally turned up, carrying beers and looking rather bemused by his rowdy reception.

The Rose Bowl, Southampton

Hampshire Royals v Essex Eagles

A lot of people were eating long wobbly hot dogs, overdone burgers and chips with raw onion and gherkins - we took a picnic!

Look, a score board with lots of numbers on

Saturday -

Family afternoon at my parent's house.

Some of my mum's wonderful flowers - I'm still looking for a weed.....

I love the clashing, hot vibrant colours of these Helenium

A little nook to sit on a bench.  We brought some produce with us

The weather has been very changeable on my walks this week.  Sunny, hot, rainy, windy.....

I've seen more bees than last summer

Although, I heard on the news that the population of bees is declining because of the intensification of agriculture and the use of pesticides.  

I am excited that Autumn will soon be here, my favourite season.

Poppy seed head

Dry grasses

I didn't realise that these beautiful shrubs grew in the wild.  I'm tempted to take a cutting! 

Spiraea or 'Billard's Bridewort'

See - misty, Autumnal!  Gorgeous!

Autumn to me is -

Bonfires

Fireworks

Baked potatoes

Carving pumpkins

Log fires

Baking cakes

Home made soup

Cold, misty mornings

Damp, earthy castles

Fun fungi forays in the woods

First fungi of the year!  So cute.

Friday -

As usual, I thought - quick walk as I have to paint some woodwork in the downstairs loo, and the weather looked a bit dull.

Soon as I got out in the fresh air, I forgot all about the decorating

It started to rain and I had the wrong wellies on so my trousers got wet (see pic further up!)

Big Dog doesn't care about a spot of rain either

I'm weird, I actually like bad, atmospheric weather - sometimes!

Dark, moody skies

Then, just as quickly the sun came out and phew - hot

Wheat

Wheat field

I really didn't fancy decorating now

I did do the painting but I was very naughty and watched a film in the afternoon whilst the sun was shining and I should have been gardening!  

The Montbretia is out in the front garden 

Rudbeckia in the rose garden

I'm very eagerly learning to play the keyboard at the moment.  I hope I can keep it up. Sarah has given me some books to start me off.  They must be quite old as at one point I was instructed to 'listen to the track on the record'!  

It's a good challenge for my bad music reading skills and short attention span

The rain has battered my roses.  I salvaged this one, it was face down in the mud, and took it indoors.

I am a bit sad that the nights are drawing in already and I mustn't think of all those days when I'm walking the dog in the dark, both end of the days!  Nooooooo......

Still, reasons to be cheerful -

HOLIDAY THIS WEEK!  Yippeeeee.....!  A whole week off work at home.

Oooh, 

- not having to set the alarm clock to 6am

- cooked breakfast, brioche, croissants (instead of cramming toast in my mouth whilst reading my emails at work)

- time to write 

- do the crossword

- read, read, read until my eyes go funny

- watch a film (tick, already done that to start off the holiday mood)

- pub lunch (in the week!)

- day trip on the train somewhere

- try some different walks

A week isn't long enough!