A short walk on the lane reveals the warm colours of autumn

While I am still pining for summer, I was heartened this evening by the warm colours of autumn on the lane. Yes everything is turning, the light is fading, and there is a chill in the air. But the golden ferns are just crisping at the edges, the hawthorn trees are laden with haws and the heather is blooming in soft shades of purple and lilac. The setting sun has moved into the south west again, and we are so aware here that the skies are that bit darker, so much earlier in the evenings.

The autumn colours as always are inspiring, a reminder that nature is the most wonderful gardener of all, and this little lane as usual continues to reveal that simple truth, that the natural world can't really be improved on. That goes for each of us too, do you think?

There is so much rain, it's everywhere, on everything

It's yet another rainy Sunday and it seems as if the rain delays until I'm free from work and looking forward to a swim or a few hours in the garden with the sun on my skin, and then the deluge happens. Right now it is pounding on the roof and bending the last flowers of summer to the ground. But last night I got a lovely message from a someone in a drier climate, in the mid-west of the US, admiring the green and lush landscape that we in Ireland live in.

I suppose (grudgingly) that the rain is our friend and results in a soft and always green environment summer and winter. We turn on the tap and out it comes, clean and chemical free, always flowing. The little drops of moisture on every surface reflecting the thin light co-operate with nature to create our food and our future.

Today I am appreciating the beauty of rainy days and thinking of my friends around the world where water is a lot more scarce....The sun may be a bit lacking here in our so called summer but we are never thirsty .....