After a few windy and rainy days a week or so ago we are now enjoying some superb autumnal sunshine. Early morning it is chilly and there's heavy dew; but by late morning things have warmed up and the sun still has enough power to make it very pleasurable to sit outside on the south side of the house.
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| Wild grape [looking up the chemin towards neighbor's barn] |
Along one side of the lane which heads to our house is a feral grape. We have no idea what species it is, nor even if it is a wine or table variety. It obviously loves the reflected heat from the south facing drystone wall. The woods behind the wall aren't maintained but every so often during the season the hunters crash through it with their dogs. They make loads of noise and there's much yelling at the dogs who are gloriously oblivious.
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| ripe grapes |
We ran into the son of one of the nearby farmers walking up our chemin over the weekend. With his shotgun broken over his arm, he was accompanied by two dogs [who promptly collapsed at Niall's feet for some attention] He was out potting for rabbits. However, with a slightly embarassed grin he confessed that he wasn't likely to get anything for the pot and he was out as much to give the dogs a good walk as anything else. To be honest, any rabbit -or other wildlife- worth it's salt would have been long gone. The dogs weren't really focused on the job, being more interested in being patted!
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| Katinka came along to photograph the grapes |
Wildlife round us doesn't seem to be too traumatised. As if to re-inforce this point, yesterday at lunchtime, Niall, with the inevitable Katinka in tow, rounded our woodshed and saw a dog fox cross our land. Katinka promptly stopped dead, fluffed herself up like a puffball and hissed. The said fox looked at human and cat and continued on his leisurely way, completely unimpressed by the encounter.
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| Red berries in the woods |
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| Flame coloured creeper |
Our trees are still green but there are increasing signs of autumn. The creeper has turned its usual flame red and we saw the bright red berries of some wild climber.
12 comments:
We have a complete change today, grey, cold and very wet!!! Keep well you two, Diane
Hello Niall and Antoinette:
How beautifully this post reflects the sights, sounds and ambiance of Autumn. The pace of life becomes more leisurely and, as temperatures dip, more time is spent indoors than out. And, how wonderful it is to watch the countryside burst into its flame colours before putting on its winter coat!
Autumn for us was when the balcony was suddenly empty...having risked hernias bringing all the tender plants indoors...and morning coffee would have to wait half an hour until it was warm enough to sit overlooking the river and the yellow leaves of the plane trees.
Beautiful autumn colours in those photographs.
We're hoping you can hang on to some of that sun until we arrive. We've had precious little sun lately!
Lovely colours.
Wonderful colours and I'd love a bit of that sunshine and warmth. :-) The leaves are starting to change here, but it's been so wet they don't really show yet.
@Diane - we had rain but it cleared. Now sunshine and the odd shower. Still nice and warm by mid afternoon though.
@Jane & Lance - once our oak trees start to turn in a couple of weeks or so the colours will be at their best.
@Fly - yup back terrace is now empty as the sun doesn't ride high enough to clear the roof and we've just had fun getting Cedric the weeping fig [ficus benjaminus] back indoors on his trolly. [He's been around since '79]
@Gaynor - we'll try our best!
@Perpetua - so far the weather has stayed very mellow. We haven't even had any heating on ... yet...
Lucky you! It's rainy and windy here. Today we can even have a thunderstorm or two!
Love that photo of Katinka! The camera really loves her ... and vice versa :) Martine
@Martine - we've got rain here too but also a fair bit of sun. It is supposed to get windy/rainy here tomorrow.
Oh yes she adores the lens....*sigh*
Whatever we're doing [if she's not asleep] she has to tag along to see what's going on.
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