Friday 30 November 2012

Autumn 2012


As November draws to a frosty close I wanted to share some of the photos I've taken throughout the last few months to remind me of Autumn 2012. Well, minus the torrential rain.

At this time of year I'm always reminded of the famous quote from the poem 'To Autumn' by John Keats. And 'Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness' seems to have been quite apt this year. We often seemed to wake to early morning fog and, funnily enough, it's very foggy tonight too.



Spiders' webs became more visible as they glistened with moisture. Better for avoiding their inhabitants too! Luckily only a few seemed to invade the house this year during 'spider season' - or, more likely, they've got better at hiding.


As the fog lifted, the warm glow of the morning light filtered through the mist lingering over the water.


And eventually gave way to glorious blue skies. 


The leaves seemed more colourful than ever this year. Or maybe it's just that previous years have faded in my memory. I did see more colourful displays than this but it always seemed to be when I was in the car and unable to stop to take pictures.


The berries also seemed more plentiful, though other kinds of fruit have suffered from our miserable summer: I had a single solitary apple on my little tree.


This tree was absolutely bursting with fat, juicy berries. Superstition says that lots of berries means a hard winter to come - let's hope that, as with all superstitions, they're wrong!


 Mushrooms also seem to have done very well. These were in a local garden.


This little fellow was in a park munching on what I thought was an acorn. You could hear the crack crack crack as he worked his way through his snack! I went back a few days later to take more photos of him and his friends and discovered that they were actually eating peanuts which they'd stashed at the bottom of a tree.


I watched in delight for about 20 minutes as they chased each other around, scampering among the leaves and digging in the earth to hide their food for later.


And then they'd pause for a rest and a snack.


Isn't he gorgeous? So cute! And my favourite photo of Autumn 2012. I wonder what images Winter will bring?

6 comments:


  1. "Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness", my husband says that every time in the Autumn when we walk out upon a misty Autumnal morning!
    Great photos, all of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I bet, like me, he learned it at school doing 'O' levels. It's funny how certain lines stay in your mind and the rest of the poem you can't remember at all!

      Delete
  2. You've chosen some wonderful photos for November. I am particularly charmed by those red berries against the blue sky. This may be because our Eastern holly died and we have no winter berries this year. Hope that means a mild winter. ;>

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! I do like snow but just not when I have to drive to work in it.

      Delete
  3. These are beautiful photos! I, too, enjoy watching squirrels. For awhile we even had one as a pet. If you can believe it, we actually are still having to use the air conditioner in December! And it has been a LONG while since we've seen rain.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish we still had to use air conditioning - it's gone below zero this week. It's so funny you had a squirrel as a pet. When we visited some friends in Boston, they were amazed that people here keep chipmunks as pets - we were amazed to see them running around in the trees!

      Delete