Visits to pumpkin patches the past two weekends have done nothing but confirm that autumn is by far my favourite time of year. Moreover, America does it very well, very well indeed.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as New traditions xx

Whilst out with a friend yesterday in the sizzling 103˚F heat, we both commented with excitement about the projected 30˚F drop in temperature that was forecast for today. I’ve looked forward to this ever since I saw it on weather.com ten days ago and OH MY GOODNESS IT FEELS GOOD. Grey skies, clouds and no need for air conditioning. Nicole even needed a jacket for her early evening walk. As I type this, I’m sitting in a woolly jumper (that’s British for ‘sweater’, by the way) having just eaten a mini apple pie and I couldn’t be happier, squee! Time for Autumn crafts. Time to break out the knitting, I think.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Hello Autumn

Autumn leaves can be nothing but a BIG FAT YES, but flip flops and bright, bright sunshine??? NOOOOOOO!!!! I can’t handle it, I’m not used to it, it’s never featured in my life before.

Autumn in England is one of the prettiest and my all time favourite time of year…

There’s a chill in the air, the smell of damp straw in the weeks after harvest, slight mists that come over the hills and the light is slowly fading to a wintertime dim glow.

The countryside is at its most spectacular.

I took the photos above about 6 weeks ago, in the final few weeks before I emigrated. By now the leaves on the trees will have turned brilliant shades of ochre and brown creating the most amazing display of nature. Having lived in this area for almost all my life, it’s hard not to love the outdoors, especially around this time of year.

But since moving to California, my senses have had a battering. Here we live much more in an urban setting and in the place of my beloved forests of trees there are instead jungles of asphalt and concrete. And what with us being a lot more equatorward, my damp misty mornings have been replaced by blazing hot sunshine with not an ounce of rain in sight.  For the past couple of weeks (the last seven days especially), I have been yearning to get back out into the natural world, so I suggested to DrMrNin this weekend that we investigate the local hiking trails. A quick glance at the map revealed a nearby county park, so we jumped in the car and off we went…

And came upon possibly the UGLIEST LAKE I HAVE EVER SEEN. This photo does not do it justice, it makes it look too pretty.

I already knew that coming from one of the prettiest areas in the United Kingdom finding somewhere even half as nice would be a tall order, but is this really the best that the country park could do?

It was slightly prettier looking up toward the other end, but only slightly. Again, it looks far more interesting in the photograph, but in real life the colour of the water was a bit more of a putrid green.

There was no way that this could be a highlight of the park, so insisted we drove on for another 20 minutes where we happened upon a hiking trail. “AHA” I thought, “there must be something at the end of this, it must lead SOMEWHERE”. So we parked, and walked uphill, and about 15 minutes later we were still walking uphil, and another ten minutes after that we were still walking uphill (bad choice of a trail..)

And eventually the path became flatter and the trees opened out to reveal….

The UGLIEST pond I have ever seen.

Maybe my expectations were too high? Maybe this will turn into something pretty when the rainy season eventually comes?

But on the plus side…

THE LEAVES WERE TURNING!

Here in California it *IS* possible to find signs of autumn after all! And that made me very happy and not mind the ugly lakes after all

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Wrong on SO many levels (Day 194)

Hooray for skipping!
Hooray for Hunter wellies!
Hooray for turning leaves!
Hooray for Fridays

(Yes, the leaves really *are* beginning to turn around here….Autumn is on its way, oh goody)

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Day 137/365