Sunny day in Pucklechurch

At last, after a wet and cloudy week, at lunchtime today the sky cleared and the sun came out.

We were in Pucklechurch to have lunch with Andrea and Steve, and of course, gorgeous grandson Harvey..

Later, Lauren and James joined us and Harvey and Theo enjoyed story time together...

Fireworks!

This evening, before picking David up from the airport, I went to a school firework display with Maggie. 

Although it was rather muddy underfoot, the display was impressive, with many different shapes and colours in the sky..

Rainy afternoon in Bath

It was rather a gloomy and damp afternoon in Bath today.

There was a welcome splash of colour and light,  however, in a new shop which has opened in the centre selling crafts made in Devon.

As well as extraordinary life size animals - some made as seats for the Chelsea Flower Show - decorated with real shells and glass nuggets...

.. there was also a wonderful seasonal spicy smell from garlands and wreaths and from these two reindeer peering out into the rainy street.  All made of dried orange slices and cinnamon with dried flowers and seed pods.

Forecasting a hard winter?

Today I have been looking closely at three different holly bushes in Mum's garden.  Two of them are covered in berries, the third has some tiny but intricate flowers..

This is the male plant - the female plants have the berries, but only if there is a male plant in the vicinity.

This beautiful, variegated holly is very prickly and covered in berries.

The yellow-berried holly is very prolific but has less holly-like leaves - they are less shaped and are not prickly.

It is said that a heavy crop of berries foretells a hard winter ahead, but this is apparently an old wives tale.  The determining factor is the weather in the early part of the year..

Even if we don't have a hard winter ahead, I am sure that the birds will enjoy feasting on the berries when the weather gets cooler!

Out for supper

Just one photo today - had a very nice catch-up evening with Claire and this is Jessie saying good night when I left!

Season of Mists and ... (more mist)

There were not too many signs of mellow fruitfulness in the garden today, but plenty of mist!

It stayed all day, coating everything with tiny droplets of moisture..

Quite beautiful, but I would rather see some sunshine!

Precious Moments

David did not arrive with us until late on Friday night and this evening we have travelled to Bath, so his time was short this weekend.

But there was time for some quiet storytelling with Theo, reading about Mog.

And also for some boisterous cuddles..

As well as an episode of Charlie Chalk..

And a new aeroplane toy..