I love Autumn, it's my favourite time of the year. Apple Crumble.The colour of the leaves on the trees and the sound of the leaves underfoot. The golden hue of the sky in the evenings and the mornings and the glimpses of blue skies. The crisp misty mornings and the randomness of the weather on walks.
It's my favourite time for clothing also, jumper, jeans and boots and fingerless gloves. No need to drag out the heavy winter coats just yet, stick an umbrella in my bag for the odd bit of rain, the blankets come out for the evenings, the curtains get drawn and life just gets cosy.
I don't enjoy what follows though, the clocks going back, the darkness and the wet and the cold, but I do look forward to Christmas.
I love seasons, planning the gardening, rotating the contents of my wardrobe. It's something I missed when we lived abroad, just endless summers in Dubai, which whilst they sound appealing, it gets boring and half the year just too hot to enjoy. South Africa'w weather was perfect, with only two seasons, Summer and Winter and the opposite of the UK, and the days being almost of equal day to night.
I've always enjoyed Halloween and decorating the house and taking the kids trick or treating, it wasn't something that was done in South Africa, but in Dubai, like every other festival, it was celebrated in style.
Since we've been back in the UK we've been to Northern Ireland for Halloween with our grandson and taken Bob to the pumpkin patch with our granddaughter.
I've still got my decorations I made from a sponsored post during covid and quite a few that are over 20 years old. I've made a few new ones this year and now the grandchildren are older we've booked a trip to Streamvale Open Farm in Northern Ireland and a visit to West Midlands Safari Park.
This years halloween decorations:
Pool noodle, cut into four lengths, wire added with cable ties to form the legs, wrapped in black plastic and tied together in the middle.
Old cushion covered in black plastic and attached to legs.
Add googly eyes and tan dah!
I've added the hedgehog and squirrel and the mushrooms to the wreath this year. I need to find a better way to attach it to the front door. It's currently attached with a ribbon threaded over the top and through the letter box.
I've decorated the dining room ready for our granddaughters visit on the weekend and I've a few more decorations to out on Friday morning and in the hallway for when I open the door for trick or treat.
I saw these decorations at a National Trust property and decided to have a go at making them myself. they were easy to make but time consuming, around an hour for each one.
I've also got some fabric and china pumpkins in the lounge that will stay out, along with the door wreath until the Christmas decorations go up, then will come back out until the beginning of March when they will be replaced with the decorations for Spring time.
We're currently in Northern Ireland for half term visiting son 4, his wife and our two grandsons. We're camping on Lough Neagh. We're off to the Pumpkin Patch at Streamvale Farm. We've got dressing up costumes to wear. We're baking halloween cakes. It's also our grandsons 4th birthday next week, so we're celebrating that while we're here also.
I often feel winter kicks in and starts once the clocks go back and bonfire night is over even though it doesn't begin until the 21st December, it's made harder by the fact Christmas has been in the shops since September just as we got into Autumn.
