I adore observing the dramatic change in seasons in the wood. Although I dread the dark nights, the colours of autumn are somewhat a fair compromise.
Members of Outdoor Blogger are blogging with the theme of Autumnwatch this month, so I thought I'd share some photos I have taken around the wood this Autumn.
The title photo above is of the Skullery which houses the woodburner and backboiler that heats our tap water and the central heating system. It gets super-hot in the Skullery making it the ideal place to dry washed clothes. It also houses the washing machine meaning we don't have to endure the noise of it running.
The woodland is predominantly silver birch and at their tiny diamond-shaped orange leaves appear to twinkle in the wind at this time of year.
As the leaves start to decompose, the car park turns to a muddy mess making cleaning our cars a pointless task. The car bonnets become clogged with leaves and twigs and the roofs develop a green layer.
The house still looks warm and inviting among the browning vegetation. Soon the long grass will die back to a mushy mess.
We were given this old piano and put it in the area know as 'the party site'. It's been there over three years and is slowly rotting away. The keys still play notes but the moisture makes the keys stick. It's been a fun feature at our woodland parties and many people ask how we got such a heavy piano down that end of the wood. We love hitting a few of the keys in the dark of night, hoping a passer by may hear and be spooked out by the sounds of a piano coming from within a wood. Muwahahahahaaa!
Sweeping the deck of leaves is a frustrating task. As soon as I think I have finished, more fall from above. the surface because deathly slippy from wet leaves and the sweeping does help to reduce the build up of the the slippery gunk.
Autumn seems to pass quicker than other seasons. Maybe not in astronomical terms but the start is often associated with the change in colour of leafs to when all the trees are bear, indicating the onset of winter. That's how it feels in the wood now. All but some of the oaks have shed their leaves and the general colour of the landscape has changed from warm oranges to murky browns and greys. Yesterday and today I awoke to ground frost and the water dishes for the animals needed their frozen surfaces broken. Winter is definitely on its way.
If you blog about the outdoors you may be interested in joining Outdoor Bloggers run by myself and Zoe of Splodz Blogz. Sign up here for monthly blog themes and to meet other like-minded bloggers who love blogging about the outdoors. You can read more about Outdoor Bloggers here. If you have any questions feel free to send me a Tweet.
