Nearly autumn

If the oak is out before the ash,
'Twill be a summer of wet and splash;
But if the ash is before the oak,
'Twill be a summer of fire and smoke.
– Country Proverb


I took some pictures in the garden first thing this morning of roses with raindrops on them, and also one of our resident fox chilling out near the bird feeders. However, this photo, taken later, seemed to sum up the day better. We have both an oak tree and an ash tree in our garden, and I’m pretty sure the oak leaves were out well before the ash leaves this year as usual, but there was precious little ‘wet and splash’ over the summer, and rather too much ‘fire and smoke’ for my liking.

Dead oak leaves have been falling from our tree for weeks now, owing to the very dry summer, accompanied by lots of acorns, and these are just some of the leaves which blew around in the breeze yesterday, piling up in a corner of the terrace before receiving a quick soaking. I opened the back door, pressed the shutter and bingo! Blip sorted.