What To Look For In Autumn

 

Although perhaps a little premature in the season for a full on Autumn walk, inspired by a favourite vintage Ladybird book, in the "What To Look For" series, (my copy was obtained from my primary school jumble sale some 20 years ago, and still bares the school stamp and the date; 3rd November 1972!), Mia, Baby Boy & I put on our wellies and headed out in to the woods for a nature forage! 



 

What lovely illustrations in this book, although we didn't actually get to see the Woodpecker, we certainly heard him! We did however see the most gorgeous large green dragon-fly. 

Vintage wicker basket to collect nature, plenty of fallen Autumn leaves, feathers and acorns.  The blackberrys which we usually collect at this time of year were practically non-existent - perhaps due to the terrible summer, we didn't bother with the scrappy half-ripe ones that we did manage to find;

We found a wooden carving in the middle of the woods, these appear randomly around our town, though i've never come across one so far out before;

 

 

Making sure the feathers didn't blow away, Mia pinched Baby Boy's blanket to cover them from the breeze, Baby Boy glad to be rid of his blanket, after finding a way to ditch it over the side of the pushchair and every given chance! 

 

 

We walked back home through the town, past the old Victorian houses and lovely red phone box;

 

 

Back home it was time for a sit down (we'd walked for hours!) and a very welcome cup of tea! At this time of year in particular I'm always drawn towards my 1970's retro mugs and kitchen jars;

As the light faded it was nice to switch on the lamps and browse through some of the old books, a perfect Autumnal pastime;

And later a mooch through some seasonal cook books vintage and new, it would be lovely to actually have the time this Autumn to make something from them  - lets hope!

The Sophie Dahl's are new as they were on offer, but I usually buy my cookery books second-hand unless it's one of the River Cottage series at a reduced price - I just love Hugh!

This early 1930's book is fantastic, complete with some WWII newspaper cuttings on wartime recipes saved between the pages - I'd certainly love to give some of those a go!

 

I love days like this, I think it's so important to get out of the house every now and again and allow your mind to switch off from every day stresses and chores, it certainly did me the world of good!  After a stressful week with the potential house move it seems that things may be all "up in the air" again, so it was great to enjoy the outdoors and simple things in life to take my mind from it.  I'm looking forward to many more days like this during the months leading up to Christmas.   I'll leave you with a collage of Mia's nature finds from the walk;

Have a lovely week xx