In my garden in October

Between the showers today, I popped outside to take a few quick photos.  The one above is of my 'Beauty Bush', I've had this shrub for about 15 years and although it has occasionally decided to flower, I have never had berries on it.  Aren't they an amazing colour?  I'm sure it's in the wrong place but I don't think I'll be moving it now.

The leaves are falling from the trees now, particularly as it has been really windy today.  Here in the south west of Scotland we are missing the worst of the storms predicted for the south of England, however we did have 50mph gusts and lots of leaves had gathered between the path and the grass.

 

Lovely Gentian, still blooming despite the weather.

 This Polyanthus also provides a splash of colour.

The glorious blue skies make this look like a summer day but the brief spells of sunshine were interspersed with very heavy showers and sometimes the sky in front of the house was blue and the behind the house it was very, very dark!  You can see that our field is full of water, the usual 'pond' is about a third of the size of this, fortunately it is far enough away from the house not to cause any alarm.

Stay safe everyone.

Autumn Fruits

It was a warm day today, perfect for a walk and what a treat it was to see such an abundance of fruits in the hedgerows.  There are still loads of blackberries although they are not all they seem, some have been spoiled by the rain.  I picked some on Friday evening and probably have enough in the freezer for my purposes. It does seem a shame not to pick them, but I just don't have enough time to preserve them. 

The hedgerows are also full of haws on the hawthorn hedges and, for the first time for many years, we have some beautiful rose hips. The pictures were so vibrant, I was inspired to do a digital layout!

Fall - 365+1

Sherwood Studio - Thrift

We had some late afternoon sun and I nipped up the road when I got home from work to see if there were any blackberries to photograph.  There were, but they seem to be very late to ripen this year with the terrible weather we have had.  Last night, we had gale force winds and torrential rain, hard to believe when you see the sun shining on this thistle head which has already spread it's fluffy seed heads.