Project 365 day 321: Leaves numerous

I woke up to a sunny morning, and P made his delicious savoury scones for breakfast and brought them to us warm, because, he said, he wanted to cheer us both up. Some important chasing up regarding one of J's medical appointments turned out to be less time consuming and more straightforward than I expected, and I was able to get out before lunch for a quick walk to the avenue and Triangle, our village green, where I expected to find numerous trees and leaves for the Wide Wednesday challenge. Unfortunately the view down the avenue, which runs between the Triangle and the school field and is usually clear of parked vehicles outside school start and finish times, was obstructed by a large white van which showed no sign of moving, so it's the carpet of fallen leaves on the edge of the Triangle, patterned by the shadows of the tall trees, which I've chosen for today. The extra is a nicely lit shaggy ink cap which I found in a perfect patch of sunlight among the leaf litter. In our younger days P and I used to pick these and fry them, as they are one of the easiest edible mushrooms to identify. 

It was still sunny after lunch, so I took the opportunity to tackle some overdue clearing up outside. It was astonishingly mild for mid- November, which is both a pleasure and a worrying reminder of our changing climate. I cleared almost everything from the greenhouses, and removed a lot of very messy dead grass from around the oregano, at the same time as picking a large tray of oregano to dry. The plants are hardy but the leaves will die back over the winter if I don't take the opportunity to pick them now, and we can never have too much dried oregano. I brought in the last two large squashes and picked a small tub of tomatoes from the few blight resistant plants which survived on the balcony; it's very sheltered there and they are still ripening, very slowly, so unless hard frost is forecast I will leave them a little longer. It's astonishing still to be picking tomatoes outdoors in mid-November. Before I came in, I watched the moon rising over the ridge of the Downs, pale and pink-tinged in a clear sky.