Nature Diary... Autumnal Beauty

No rain today after days in which it poured so it was a good day to go out and I was not disappointed. With so many photos to choose from I decided to create a collage to give a sense of how lovely the day turned out to be, with some extraordinary sights which I’d never seen before including some gigantic mushrooms numbering about two or three dozen covering a patch of grass measuring about 16ft x 16ft. Truly extraordinary. None seemed to have been nibbled by creatures so I guess they were probably highly toxic. The biggest mushroom in the top photo measured about 12 inches across – huge! And the others there were not that much smaller!

Pulling in to a little country cafe it was delightful to see the little birds at the bird feeders there and then to be sitting peacefully watching them feeding on their suet filled half coconut shells into which seemed to have been pressed raisins (a new idea for me to try perhaps when I refill my own bird feeders at home). I enjoyed a latte and a slice of date and apricot crumble – it was that or carrot cake today. I took a quick shot of three teasels in the distance and was delighted when I looked at the photo on my pc to see that my camera had unexpectedly picked up so clearly on a spider’s web attached to the teasels which I hadn’t in fact noticed was there at the time.

Finally, in pride of place among some of my smaller plants now resides a beautiful new Spider plant (Chlorophytum) which I bought today in a little country garden centre. It’s decades since I owned one of these beautiful plants which were very popular in the 1970’s particularly when seen hanging down from woven natural fibre baskets. I had a three tier one which I have carefully put away somewhere and which I fully intend to use again when my new Spider plant produces offspring, which I’m looking forward to nurturing.

At this time of year with the summer trying to hang on like the leaves try to hang on to the trees, it’s an absolute joy to bask in the warmth of the autumnal sunshine on a wind free day when all sense of change in the weather seems to be drawing a long, slow breath before tumbling downhill as temperatures start to drop and going outside is not always so enjoyable...