YELLOW

Carmi's Thematic Challenge this week is Yellow. Above is the locked gate to the children's playground whilst it was being renovated this summer. Caused many a tear until it opened again!




And this is the stunning colour of the Witch Hazel bush the other side of the Park, photographed this week. I hope the leaves stay on for a bit, as it really is lovely.
There is a lot of yellow and orange on the trees at the moment, but nothing quite as yellow as the Witch Hazel!

An Autumnal blog

Although we take the dog out every morning at roughly the same time, it is now 'early morning' as far as the sun is concerned! In order for the first rays to reach us, they have to struggle through a big sycamore tree. One very frostly morning, I loved the way the rays struck the leaves and berries on our Rowan tree.



The Park was really frostly, so much so it looked like snow! But it was a beautiful bright morning so nobody minded! Even so, I thought I had it to myself for quite a time until I met another dog walker. (They are the only people in the park at this hour!)




The frost gave a kick-start to the trees, and they have begun to turn colour. The top left is some sort of Hazel, I am convinced it is a Witch hazel, as in the spring it has little stringy flowers in pale yellow. A big beech has turned a bright orange, and a maple of some sort is yellow. the fir trees at the start of the Pitch and Putt Golf course are just beginning to turn yellow. Later they will go bright orange, and I really love them then, just before they drop all their needles. There is also a sort of inedible crab applie tree - the apples look lovely gainst the sky. They don't seem to be eaten by the birds until right at the end of the winter when presumably they get a lot softer!

The frost has gone now, and it is fairly mild again, but no doubt it will get colder. Trouble is, the mild weather brings rain. I prefer it cold, but bright. I can't do brisk walks now, but I get along OK, and always like to go back to a lovely warm house!

Savor/Things I enjoy

Carmi's Thematic challenge this week is "Savor". I have interpreted that as "Things I Enjoy with my Five senses".



I love looking and listening to, moving water. Any sort of waterfall, or like the above, the wake of a ship. This was on our cruise, and the patterns the wake made in the rough water were endlessly fascinating.



I also like cooking, and eating! This is a plum tart I made, which was vaguely successful - the plums could have been a bit tastier! I don't do as much cooking as I used to, so I have made a resolution to try something new every week!

Sunday Outing

It was a beautiful day on Sunday, so we headed out towards the Staffordshire Moorlands. These are really the tail end of the Peak District, which is mostly in Derbyshire, but the Staffordshire Moorlands are, surprise, surprise,in Staffordshire! It is slightly gentler country than the southern Peaks, and entirely different from the harsh, Dark Peak of the northern parts. The Roaches are a well-known wall of rocks, a favourite place for climbers and rough walkers. You can see them in the top left of the collage. The top right picture is the view from the road across to moors. The white blob on the skyline is actually the telescope at Jodrell Bank.



We wanted to go to an Antique Fair at Meereworth first. There were some lovely things there. I bought a couple of necklaces, and then persuaded Mr.G to buy me this gorgeous glass bowl for my birthday next month. The Dealer said it was Mdina glass; it is very heavy, thick and with wonderful coloured swirls in the glass. It is five inches across and three and a half inches tall. I love it!




After the Fair we went on to Tittesworth Reservoir, which is owned by Severn Trent Water, and they welcome the public there, although not IN the water! There are some beautiful walks round the lake, and I was so pleased with myself as we managed to get to my favourite place where the stream leaves the lake through the trees. We had lunch there, in the Visitor Centre, or rather outside, in the sun, where our dog could sit with us.




There were some very interesting things around. One was a giant sofa, made of wood, commpletely realistic. You can see Mr.G and Max, the dog, plus a little girl who came over, sitting on it! There was also a little house with no sides (?a Gazebo) where you could sit and admire the view, and down by the wooded places, where the ground was rougher, there were some fabulous seed heads of some sort of umbellifer plant.

It was altogether a lovely day out, and really did me good! I am determined to get us out more, especially as there probably won't be so many lovely days now winter is coming!

Getting Colder - Thematic Photograph

Carmi's Thematic Challenge this week was "Getting Colder".

I thought about frost, ice etc. and then winter woollies, scarves, and gloves. And all that stuff has to be made, or knitted.

Here, as colourful as I can make it, is the yarn to do all this! Winter is coming (in the northern hemisphere, anyway) so get knitting!

Autumn Trees

Walking in the Park this morning it struck me how many trees are dropping their leaves. In places, the ground is covered. We have a lot of Whitebeams in the park, and in the Spring they were a magnificent sight, covered in blossom, as I have never seen before. Now they are dripping with orange berries, and from afar, they merge like an orange haze.

But their leaves are dropping. Not turniong colour, just shrivelling up and dropping.

The same is true of the sycamores, and the birches. And the Horse Chestnuts look in a very bad way. They have turned a glorious orange, but in patches. Parts of the tree are still greenish. I have never seen anything like it before. I do hope it is not the blight which is affecting Horse Chestnuts in England, as if it is, the Council will have them down - for Health and Safety reasons, of course!




Many of the trees are still sturdily green, like the Oaks, but they always turn colour later. It seems to be the smaller trees, and the ornamental trees that are suffering.

I do wonder what our odd seasons have done to them to make them react in this way. Have we any people here with Arboricultural knowledge, who can let me know?

Branches - thematic Challenge

Some of you might remember The Crows - but the branches are nice. Carmi's thematic Challenge this week is "Branches".



The second photo is a version of our Honeysuckle bush as it twines up an arch. Lovely in the summer, but a bit dead-looking now!

Chestnuts - Horse and Sweet

I would really hate anyone to be poisoned by confusing chestnuts beause of my photo! In the UK, the above are called Horse Chestnuts, I don't know what they are called in the US and Canada, but they are poisonous!




The Sweet Chestnut is what you can eat. The spikes go brown when the nut is mature, and then you can go a-roasting!

The cases are very different, there being lots of spikes, like a hedgehog, and prickly!

Both these photos were taken from web sites, and are probably copyright.

Conkers

I'm just a kid when it comes to conkers! I don't want to fight with them - heaven forbid!! I just love the smoothness, the shiny brownness, the way they peep from their cases - everything about them!

So I tried to look as though I wasn't actually collecting conkers in the park this afternoon, (it didn't seem the sort of thing very elderly dog-walkers should be doing!)and picked a few up as I came home. There were loads scattered all over the ground. When I was a child they would have disappeared as fast as small boys could stuff them in their pockets!

And then I enjoyed myself taking photographs of their gorgeous brown shininess.

And now I'm sharing them with you, in case there are other conker-lovers around!

Parallels

The sun beds were all ready to be used on our cruise ship, but the weather did not induce many people to indulge!

Though I did spend an hour, in the sun, out of the wind, with a book trying to disguise my disappointment at not being able to land at Guernsey!

Thanks to Carmi for getting me to think geometric!

And I've found some more!