I really wanted to come up with a fancy title for the blog, unfortunately I couldn't think of one....but I love Autumn/Fall and so there you go. This year our Autumn seems a bit devoid of colour but never the less it is beautiful and after having a hard time adjusting to US life again, I am loving the sights about me. So the ever trusty camera phone has been snapping since the beginning of the month. So here goes,
At first glance....this doesn't look like anything significant...but what we are observing here is an Isaac, in his natural habitat.....this is approximately 6.30am August 31st and we are seeing an annual phenomenon of the First Day of School
As you can see they haven't dressed up for the occasion! and it is still darkish!
Got to get to the bus stop before 7:00am
Longwood...again
We have been meaning to go to Longwood for the longest time and to take Miss Lucy with us and we finally managed it. What we wanted to see was the water lilies!
I love the fact that they make the water black and you can take fab reflective pics
I love this one with the clouds and of course at the bottom is my shadow!
At Longwood they have a lot of specimen trees and we always enjoy looking at them. Often you are unaware that they are different...but how cool is this! I think that it is from a Chinese Chestnut tree! Now that's what I call spiky and let me tell you they were like green needles! the most industrial sticky buds I have ever seen.
Oh lovely Longwood and forest and lake!
OMG get in time boys! it's no good marching like that..........
Now you've got it. They are actually instep.
The blooms at Longwood are always amazing and stunning in their colour depth
A neighbour when I was growing up had these in her garden and they always had ear wigs in them and I never liked them..but look, they are beautiful and no I didn't check for ear wigs!
This is some of the art work that has been put up around our town. They are classics brought into the street and in various locations. They are rather fun and unexpected
This is my favorite and it outside the parking garage of the court house down town. The rescue! they might have been thinking justice...I don't know something like that?
There are so many things that we love about this time of the year for me it is all the fresh produce and farmers stands....this was a selection of tomatoes that I got the other week from such a place and I loved the colours!
One of my very favorite trees is the Horse Chestnut. They really are the meaty tree, they just seem so sturdy and don't mess about. In Spring they are usually the first of the large trees to push out enormous leaf buds and beautiful candles of flowers, then those fat leaves are glorious into Fall, the first to produce conkers....that is the name of the nut...I realise that in America they don't call them conkers and never collected them to fight with them. For me they conjure school boys with uniforms, shorts and scuffed knees and times gone by! Maybe even a school flannel cap, here or there. But here is a Horse Chestnut tree showing the best side, leaves still on the tree, some drying and curled and of course the fantastic conker in it's spike ball shell.......
Me and Louie went one early evening after school and took some conker shots...I have tons of them but thought maybe my love might not be shared with everyone...But these are my favorite pictures
I think that it is amazing how shinny they are (the conkers in the shells) when they are bandist new!
This picture shows the inside and the lovely soft lining that the conker lives in. The lines inside the shell are just...so perfect! Yes I do love conkers and all things Horse Chestnut tree !!!!
The thing about this time of the year is the weather is cooler for us but not cold and the mornings are bright and clear mostly and the breathtaking blue skies are phenomenal. I got this shot probably about 7:45am.....the chimney is a favorite of mine, if you can have such a thing and that sky was eye poppingly blue!
One weekend Damian and the boys through direct encouragement from me.....finished off our funny pavilion in the garden
They fitted bamboo blinds and now we have a fun place to sit in the garden, it is rough and ready but with a roof...might last longer.
This might have been a moment to celebrate the fozardness! but what a cutie!!! Or just Isaac once again showing he is the tallest!
And onto my walk and finds on the street!
One morning I saw this fruit on the pavement and was instantly intrigued, after some research this is from a certain Dogwood Tree. They apparently are edible fruit but not that tasty. I didn't try them! But they are quite amazing and visually quite raspberry like.
Even found a tree with them loaded on to!
On a separate walk I was early enough to catch the morning dew on the spiders webs and with all thoughts leading to Halloween, I thought that these were very atmospheric
If you look closely you can see the water droplets
This one I thought looked like a scene from a Narnia Forest. So imagining that the small spires of the plant are ginormous trees and this is a blanket over that Forest.....well that's what I thought. You might just see a cobweb :)
These webs were like small dishes...although to the spider they could be huge, luckily I didn't see the spider that lives there!
Truly nature is amazing. I loved the fact that the web is like a cloth that has been pierced by the plant..sort of torn but the web is intact, now that is some design.
Come on! this is the best one, there are beads of water along this web edge. Just superb.
This particular morning was quite foggy and the playground looked quite erie
As for the street.....well it disappears.
These last two are an apple tree I saw in someones back garden, literally weighted down by fruit and a fab old car. I love the colour of the car. The lines are quite special too. I can't imagine a time when they all looked like that. Although I suppose just as now it would be mixed and maybe I would like to imagine less cars on the roads!
And finally, this roofing West Chester style. Our roofer is amazing and he just climbs up there, up rickety ladders and does a great job. We are replacing whole sides of our roof and this time it is the East and South facing getting an update. The tiles he took off were from when the house was built in1885. They have done well but we needed new ones. It is quite a process and the slate tiles are being replaced. The slate really is great but we need a lot of it, hence the stages to do it!....expensive!!!! It will look lovely when done but what I want to know is how Louie sleeps through him banging on the roof above Louie's bed! Amazingly that he does sleep ....teenagers!
