Stunning September

Well, by the middle of September, July and August had vanished in a blur. However, the weather did not disappoint, and by the third week of the month, the sun was as warm as the summer months. September 21st, the 'beginning of autumn', was hot, sunny and delightful.

Inbetween, it was back to school and catching up at home with a vengeance and we were both very busy. The children seemed to have come back intent on obtaining individual attention by any means: not easy when there are 21 in the class! All lovely individuals, though. One boy, C, is especially kind-hearted and helpful to others, unobtrusively comforting and assisting his neighbour in trouble. In addition, when I had changed out of PE kit after lunch, he blurted out in front of the class I like your top!"  Then another child started to discuss the pattern on my brightly coloured shirt, somewhat inarticulately - eventually I realised he was talking about Aboriginal art. You've got to love ten year olds....

Still, they are hard work sometimes. I hear my colleague give the same instruction on repeat, time after time after time...

I've carried on cycling to school, sometimes with my 'old' bike, laden with panniers and wide tyres; often with the electric bike. Yet another motoroist delighted me one morning when, drawing up behind me at traffic lights, he got out of his car and berated the driver of the car in front who had cut in on me dangerously and unnecessarily. Absolutely MADE MY DAY.

Richard has been super busy cleaning and tidying up the motorhome, ready for its service in England next month, and doing all kinds of maintenance and catch up jobs. Not least the garden...so many hedges to cut.

Meanwhile, I try to retain some measure of individual 'freedom', as far as I am able when back at work full time. Small delights: picking blackberries or a walk on the cliffs...a quick excursion with a bodyboard to catch the surf... catching up with friends over tea, coffee, breakfast, supper... celebrating a 60th birthday milestone... going to hear Graham Kendrick in concert: a wonderful, worshipful evening.

The tomato plants lovely Nicky gifted me...

And the resultant tomatoes...love the smell of tomato plants

Afternoon on the cliffs...

Evening walk...

On our way home from church...

Vazon super surfing...

Super hectic, but a super September.

Autumn.

Autumn. Still stunning sunrises and sunsets...

....flowers and fungi....

Nerines - the Guernsey lily.

Flowers by my back door

Herb garden

Autumn madness

Autumn has set in, with a vengeance. Our little island was lashed with gales and rain - horizontal at times.  'Showers' came out of nowhere, drenching within seconds. Then the sun leapt back before grey clouds whipped it aside again.  More rain. More wind.

Then The Weather relaxed, breathing warm and mildly again. The sun shone all day, a gentle breeze wafted, the midnight skies gleamed with stars as soft evenings beckoned us outside in the dark.

The tide overflowed onto the piers, with gentle yet inexorable power.

It was still autumn, yet we went swimming.The sea was warmer than a few weeks ago. The air, on wet skin, chilled flesh and bone.

Autumn madness.

Autumn

Autumn seems to be on its way at last - colder now, although the days have been bright and sunny. Windy.

Today, determined not to stay indoors, I went out blackberry picking.
The wind was absolutely piercing: chilling, in spite of the sun. Yet in the lee of the hedges, in the sunshine, it was warm.
I had the most amazing couple of hours on my own, alone apart from my thoughts. And my mobile phone.

Now, I have a phone ONLY because my family say I need one. Never mind that they then get cross with me if they try to call, because I rarely have it on me. My excuse is I don't always have pockets. So what's a girl to do? I always leave it in a safe place, it's just that I might not be near it. Anyway, I digress. I have a phone. I have a NEW phone. Again, only because my family gave it to me for my birthday. I'd managed to resist getting a new one - my old one worked, it just didn't have enough battery power to sustain a phone call. I never minded that, as I never called anyway, just texted occasionally. And so my family got cross with me when they tried to call because, even if I answered - being near enough to hear it etc etc - then the phone would cut out and die.

So what was amazing about the phone?  What was amazing was that it has a RADIO on it. This tiny, pocket-sized piece of electronic gadgetry has a radio. It took me a little while to work out how to actually tune it in, but after that I was away. Gardeners Question Time - resuscitating dead gardenias (not possible, as it turned out); A View Through a Lens - tigers in India ( a bit boring, I turned back to Radio Guernsey for a few minutes); Classic Serial The Ladies' Delight by Emile Zola - riveting, in spite of being distracted by the country English accents of Parisian characters; and Open Book with the wonderfully named Mariella Frostrup, interviewing Susan Hill and two authors writing two different novels featuring immigrants to Paris - which got me wondering about my grandmother who studied at the Sorbonne over a hundred years ago...

It was such a delicious afternoon. I ventured only a couple of hundred metres from home but spent a couple of hours in the sunshine, picking blackberries, wearing headphones and intently listening, listening, listening...

And blessed God for the sunshine, the fruit, the peace - and my family for the gift.

Autumn

Blissful days of endless summer.
Every sunrise is a benison, as warmth spreads across still fields, wisp clad.
A calm sea is a surprise.

Then comes a rising wind
bringing a wash of rain in hurrying footsteps.
Autumn stomps in, bad-tempered.