Autumnal musings.........

Autumn in the Peak District

Well in the last week autumn has well and truly arrived, with temperatures struggling to reach double figures and the first signs of overnight frost.

The leaves are glorious colours, and falling quite fast, unfortunately this does tend to make it a bit slippery underfoot.

We've also had more rain in the last week than we have had for a couple of months.  My days have been along the lines of - take the dogs out and get wet, come home and dry off, shower and get wet again, get dry and dressed, go out to the car and get wet, drive to work, walk from the car park to work and get wetter..... then sit in the office in wet clothes all morning whilst the freezing because the air con/heating system is confused.....  I have given serious consideration to either hibernating or becoming a duck......... rumour has it that I will be a very pretty duck.........

At home I haven't given in and put the fire on in the lounge, or plugged in the electric heater upstairs - much to the annoyance of the cats, who are spending more time under the duvet .... that said, any sign of sunlight and they are basking in it whilst they can.  At least the dogs have nice thick coats and don't mind the cold.

This weekend is the most definite sign that autumn is here....... the clocks go back......

Unfortunately, i don't get to enjoy the extra hour in bed........ because the dogs really don't understand the whole concept of changing the time......... it normally takes about a week for them to adjust to the time change.  It will start with a battle at the old time of 10 pm when they will want to go into their night crates but gradually I can persuade them to a bit later each night - which of course means they'll also get up a bit later......

This weekend my mum has visitors and is heading off with them to the farmers market, I am meeting them for lunch at the station cafe out in the peak district so will get to drive out across the moors and will be able to look at some spectacular countryside.  At this time of year, the last of the heather is holding on giving the ground a purplish touch in places, the grass is yellow green and the trees still holding their leaves will look amazing.  If it's been raining the gritstone outcrops will look really dramatic too.  The peak district is one of my favourite places to go to feel grounded, when I see the natural beauty of the landscape then it suddenly becomes easy to shake off hassles of work and home life and remember that somethings just aren't that important in the grand scheme of things.