That time of year

The trees finally decided to drop their leaves this week ( I spent a bit of time looking at ash trees yesterday and feeling sad), the light has been poor, the coats and scarves are out, and today I saw a house taking delivery of bags and boxes bearing the John Lewis name.
We went into town and had brunch at M&S, and Christmas has snuck into the menu - even into the cranberry and stuffing flavour crisps on sale.
Richard still has a foul cold and chesty cough so we went to Holland and Barrett to see if their ridiculous penny sale had anything worth buying. There wasn't much in the offer to be honest.

I looked for a card and present for Tess to take to a friend's birthday party at the weekend and couldn't help getting irritated by how Christmas has taken over. I really feel for anyone who has a birthday in November/December. I also cringed at how we seem to have gone back in time and it's all pink for girls blue for boys again. Enough of the grotesque pink sparkly stuff!

And I refuse to be pressured by Christmas panic. I am doing November first. November, you hear me!?

Away from the chaos and materialism of the high street, parts of Barnstaple are really rather pretty and I love the ancient area around St Peter's church and the remaining bits of cobbled street that have survived. As we walked further down I had to jump out of the way of the vicar who was turning his car around. the church was originally built in the 14th century and there's certainly a sense of place and history in that area.

I missed out the lovely St Anne's Chapel, so have found an old pic of it here: St Peter's Church and St Anne's Chapel, 1890 <-- Looks nicer these days with the trees, I think (and the white van, of course).

Must run off to bed - Graham Norton's just started on TV and he really gets on my tits.

PS I'm liking the way my mind is waking up again now the stress and anxiety is easing off a little bit. I really can't stress (<-- stress - ha ha excuse the pun!) enough how debilitating it has been. Being anxious makes everything impossible - like being stuck in a narrow tunnel. I hope this small improvement continues and lasts a while so I can get a grip on life again because I've been in limbo for too long.