The approach of autumn

It’s nearly the end of August, which means there are two special birthdays in our family. Today our second granddaughter was five, and on Wednesday her little sister will be three.

They are flying to Poland tomorrow with our daughter-in-law for a quick visit to their Polish grandparents, so we gave both the girls their birthday presents today, amid much excitement. I confess to having been excited myself, because we bought them each a little wicker basket in the shape of a mushroom ‘house’. The domed top of the mushroom (the roof of the house) acts as the basket lid, and opens up so that treasures can be put inside. The house also has an opening front door and little windows. I’m afraid I forgot to take a photo so my description probably doesn’t make much sense, but the baskets were so sweet and when our 11-year old granddaughter was treated to a sneak peek last week she was enchanted with them too. I can see them being taken on nature walks in the nearby forest, and returning full of acorns, feathers, twigs and such like!

We’ve also been out for a walk today to the Churchill statue and back, our first for some time, and I’ve taken some photos in the garden as well. I couldn’t make up my mind which picture to post, so I cheated a bit again and put four in a collage. (It looks better in large.) 

There’s a distant view of a game of cricket on the Green, and a shot of Winston with a backdrop of horse chestnut trees. The ones from our garden show some of the cyclamen plants which have emerged since the two recent downpours, and the lawn photo shows how fast it is greening up; faster than I could ever have imagined. It’s also absolutely covered with bits of decaying oak branches and hundreds of acorns!