Creeping towards autumn

 I know it's still July, so essentially still the middle of summer, but it feels almost autumnal at the moment. It's chilly (I've put a cardigan on today), raining heavily and getting quite windy. The blackberries have started to appear in the hedges down the lane and in our garden, although they are still very small and green, as are the berries on the hawthorn and rowan. 

I'm not complaining about this at all, we had a heatwave a couple of weeks ago, and that was more than enough summer weather for me! Autumn is definitely my favourite season. I've vaguely started my autumn preparations...ordered some firewood (for delivery in September) in case it gets cold suddenly, making sure everyone in the house has suitable clothing and footwear for cooler, wetter weather etc. This is possibly just because I get a bit over-enthusiastic about being organised, or because I get over-excited about autumn generally.

I'm almost ceratin that we will get more hot weather over the next month or so, and I will complain about summer lasting too long, being too hot and humid etc. But at the moment I am enjoying the slow, subtle hints that autumn is coming.

It's getting chilly!

 We've had a lot of rain over the last couple of weeks, and a few storms. The lawn is green again, the berries on the pyracanthas are starting to slowly turn orange, and more snowberries are appearing on the bushes. It's been a bit chilly today. In fact, the last few mornings have been a bit cooler. According to the weather forecast, it will actually feel cold this weekend (well...what I consider to be cold). I might actually wear a jumper! I love wearing jumpers.

I'm determined to go out more over the autumn, and enjoy the chilly weather, the colour changes, the wildlife....all of it! Autumn never seems to last very long, so I'm going to make the most of it.

The pheasants seem to be visiting the field next to us again. I've seen them a couple of times recently. They are really beautiful birds. When we first moved here, I got so excited about seeing pheasants and partridges (I hadn't really seen them much before). To be honest, I still get excited about seeing them. I'm not sure why I feel like pheasants are an autumnal sight...but in my mind, they are.