So no more denial, Autumn has landed and I have made my peace with the change of seasons. I have, honestly! Can't say I'm embracing it fully and utterly, but I am certainly enjoying what is on offer in the way of beautiful light and colourful foliage.
The season of damp, misty mornings is once again making us late for school as we stop and marvel at my neighbours bush of spider web hammocks....
...I loved the lace effect going on here, and imagined this whole bush must be full of very industrious, talented spinning spiders.
There is a very fulsome bramble at the end of our street, the result of a very elderly neighbour with a very overgrown garden. The brambles tumble over a high wall right above the pavement, and we've enjoyed a few surreptitious harvests in recent weeks. A lovely, seasonal taste which reminds me of childhood.
Autumn leaves always make me happy, and this year the trees in my neighbourhood are putting on a really marvellous show. I just can't get enough of these colours blowing about my feet as I walk.
We've enjoyed plenty of sunshine just lately, which makes me think that Autumn can be pretty lovely really if I just give it a chance....look how beautiful the light is....
.....everything looking so bright and clear, but with the unmistakable golden tinge of Autumn.
There have been wet days in October too, it hasn't all been about sunshiny jaunts and pretty blowy leaves. Last week we had a good bout of the wet stuff, it came as a bit of a shock to tell the truth and for the first time this season I dug out my red boots for the school run. That was quite a good moment actually, I am really still madly in love with those boots. {trying to find a current link to the aforementioned boots but they aren't to be found any more....however I did do a bit of a crazy dance over these petrol boots!
On Sunday we lit the fire for the first time since the Spring, what a complete joy. This ritual is something I very much look forward to every year, I think our humble house is made super-special by the ability to set fire to stuff inside it. I'm looking forward to many happy evenings pushing J out of the way and getting myself right there where he is, with crochet in hand.
On Monday it was my Birthday, forty seven years of age which seems comical and absurd to me. How can I possibly have clocked up that many years? How? Age does not bother me one bit, just numbers to dance around as far as I'm concerned, but I do like to celebrate Birthday-days. This year J had booked a couple days off work so we had the luxury of taking off after the school run on Monday to go walk in the woods.
Bolton Abbey is just such an easy peasy place to park up and stroll, and during a weekday morning it was deliciously unpopulated. We had whole stretches of the high path to ourselves so I could gather pretty leaves and take photographs of my hands without feeling like an eejit.
These heart shaped yellow leaves always capture my attention every year, I love the way they look as if they are made of something else other than leaf. Such glorious, undiluted colour.
There is still a lovely amount of greenery in the woodland, both in the treetops and all across the rocks. What is it about a mossy rock (or a whole collection of mossy rocks) that is so pleasing to look at? I do enjoy a good bit of mossy landscape.
Moss and rocks and water pools and copper coloured leaves, it was all very uplifting and put me in a fabulous mood for a Birthday coffee at the café afterwards. I had a really lovely day.....
....in fact I was a bit like Royalty and managed to make my Birthday celebrations stretch across FOUR whole days this year, oh yeah! Starting out last Friday when J and I drove across to the Yorkshire coast. Can you see me smiling broadly in the above shadow? We had such a wonderful, wonderful time away, my man and I, enjoying a two night stay in a teeny tiny cottage at my most favourite place Robin Hoods Bay. It was bloomin' great. Happy October Autumn days..............
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Happy Happy Day of Birth Lucy! Thank you for sharing your wonderful life in your blog posts! I look forward to each and every one!!! Wishing you a blessed year.
Mary
Posted by: Mary Nolan | October 16, 2015 at 03:16 AM
Happy Birthday, you wonderful person, you! I was on an airplane yesterday, looking down on all the absolutely stunning yellow, orange and red foliage of central New York. Made my plane phobia almost vanish, I was so enthralled. Autumn can be so painfully gorgeous. :)
Posted by: TB | October 16, 2015 at 12:03 AM
Happy Birthday Lucy, I am 6 months behind you, great how you managed to get 4 days of birthday celebrations. Loving your photos - especially when I recognise where they are :-) xx
Posted by: Sally-Jane | October 15, 2015 at 11:10 PM
Happy Birthday lovely lucy, Autumn has been kind to us this year, well until this week at least now it's raining and we've had to put the heating on, I've contented myself though with making some pretty stitchy autumn leaves.
Posted by: Clare | October 15, 2015 at 10:38 PM
Happy Birthday Lucy. I love the Autumn too. Your writing and photography is enchanting xx
Posted by: Julia | October 15, 2015 at 09:58 PM
Happy Birthday Lucy, it was lovely you were able to get away. I love the spider webs! x
Posted by: Sharon Izzard | October 15, 2015 at 08:54 PM
Happy Birthday! I autumn and the cooler weather!
Posted by: Catherine | October 15, 2015 at 08:46 PM
Belated birthday wishes!
Posted by: Meredithe | October 15, 2015 at 08:10 PM
Happy belated birthday, young'un!
Posted by: Laura from beautiful West Michigan | October 15, 2015 at 06:47 PM
Love how you make everyday - a day of fun and adventure!! Happy Birthday - I'm a few 'jaunts' ahead of you :)!! I'm glad you had an extra special longer celebration for it this year!
Posted by: Sigi G | October 15, 2015 at 05:24 PM
oh my that spider bush is fab! we have a spider hedge here, oddly, our house is very inspiredly so I guess they must prefer it in the hedge?!
Posted by: Simple Sarah | October 15, 2015 at 05:07 PM
A very Happy Birthday Lucy! I'm a year in front and also think "how did that happen"! Where's my perm gone!! Your autumn photos are just idyllic and you are right about the light, it has a different feel to it but when the sun comes out it makes everything so vibrant. Enjoy the rest of your birthday month!! xx
Posted by: Chel C | October 15, 2015 at 02:55 PM
I so miss my Manchester UK FALL. NOTHING like it..the smells the sights the food..sigh.xoxo❤
Posted by: patty | October 15, 2015 at 02:50 PM
Hi Lucy, I'm Tere from Buenos Aires (Argentina). I'm 54 years old and happily married too, mum of 3 boys. My eldest son has just married and my daugther in law is pregnant. I'm so happy because the baby is a girl and now I have the possibility to make hand craft things for her. A friend of mine suggested me your facebook page and I inmediatly "felt in love with it" I want to congrats you because you are an excellent artisan, I love all the things you make. I hope we will be friends and share our "works of art".
Finally I want to apologize for my English and I'll be wating to hear from you soon.
My best regards, Tere.
Posted by: Teresa Vigil | October 15, 2015 at 01:48 PM
happy birthday-many many more
oxoxoxo creafty mema
Posted by: . | October 15, 2015 at 01:25 PM
Happy birthday Lucy
I have read your blog for ever. I am more of a stitcher than a hooker, but I want to acknowledge your deep sense of gratitude. You always relish the little things in life and find real joy in a fire, flapjack or falling leaves. And that always makes me stop and take stock. Thank you Lucy.
Posted by: Melinda dyer Martin | October 15, 2015 at 01:22 PM
H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y, charming LUCY!!!!
The best is still to come :D
Posted by: Francine | October 15, 2015 at 12:49 PM
Happy Birthday Lucy. So glad you managed some time with your Husband. As you said numbers are just numbers. I loved Autumn when I lived in England.
Where I live in Central Queensland we do not have a lot of change between seasons, I love the time of year we are celebrating now, spring!! Hope you have caught your breath after Yarndale, it was a truly magnificent event.
Posted by: Margaret Simpson | October 15, 2015 at 11:17 AM
I miss the colours of autumn, itt's one of my favourite memories of living in the UK. We don't have the total change here in Perth (Australia not Scotland) although there are pockets of it here and there, and it takes my breath away when I drive past them. Also miss them open fireplaces - they aren't as common here!!!
Happy Birthday
Posted by: Julie | October 15, 2015 at 11:09 AM
Belated Happy Birthday Lucy - wonderful pics !!
Posted by: Helen | October 15, 2015 at 10:20 AM
Belated Happy Birthday Lucy! I can highly recommend a royal extension of birthday celebrations. It was my 50th in August I have been having fab events nearly all year including visiting Whitby for the first time. An amazing place. X
Posted by: Bridget | October 15, 2015 at 09:41 AM
Oh my lovely, a beautiful Happy Belated Birthday to you!
So glad you had a wonderful day, and managed to eek it out a little longer! I would love to change my attitude about my birthday, but I just always want to forget them. I'm not worried about age and growing older, but I've had some really horrid events happen in my life around some birthdays, so I think I just sort of want to wash over it. I just need to change how I view them really. I need to take a leaf out of your book!
I have been loving the light in Autumn. Yesterday evening, I was sat at my computer and looked out of the window to low sun on trees, and it was magical and I just thought how beautiful it all was and really how amazing the seasons are. There really is so much beauty in the everyday. xxxxx
Posted by: vanessa | October 15, 2015 at 09:30 AM
I've learnt to appreciate all the seasons, each one has something special and unique about it - the problem is, that the older I get, the quicker they come around. A bit like birthdays... I've given up counting!
Posted by: Edwina | October 15, 2015 at 09:20 AM
Happy Birthday! Your lovely posts are always so uplifting and inspiring. I like Autumn, and it is often very beautiful, but, still...can we live in the perpetual Spring somehow 😊?
Posted by: mamaSabina | October 15, 2015 at 07:54 AM
Lovely photos and the weather down south in the Midlands has been quite warm, but cold at night!
Don't eat blackberries much later as "the devil has walked over them" - well that is what my Father always said!!
Posted by: Carol | October 15, 2015 at 06:49 AM