Autumn is officially here!!!

[Plocket]

This morning, walking back from dropping LP at school, I could smell the leaves that had already fallen from the trees. The sycamores are turning red and orange, and the days are noticably shorter. I'm not complaining though - I LOVE autumn!!!

[Barbara]

nooooooo, my sweet peas are still flowering, my acidenthra are in full bloom,
and my day lillies, and my delphiniums, and my verbascum and i could go on and on.

[Deleted]

It's not Autumn until the Autumnal equinox but I know what you mean Plocket. It's really got a "feel" of Autumn about the weather at the moment. And I'm LOVING it !!

FA x

[Barbara]

you all better come to manchester it's just like summer ;D ;D ;D

[Plocket]

Whens the equinox then Andy? I just go by the months - September, October and November are the autumn months ;D

I meant to say that the horse chestnut outside the garden wall has started dropping conkers too, and it seems too early

Ooooh it'll be bonfires and kicking leaves as we walk to school soon ;D ;D ;D

[grannyjanny]

OH & I have started cycling again. We have a small flask that fits on our bikes full of tea. We go round the lanes & have a tea break watching the planes take off from Manchester. It is lovely ATM. I much prefer Autumn to high Summer. We are noticing the change in the leaves. Yesterday we saw a sparrowhawk dead in the road & there was no blood & guts but today there was no sign of it (squashed) so I think someone must have picked it up, perhaps for stuffing, who knows?
Tomorrow we are giving our bums a rest! OH can go for a walk on his own. Sadly I don't do walking my back will not allow it.
Janet.

[Deleted]

plocket said:

Whens the equinox then Andy? I just go by the months - September, October and November are the autumn months ;D

The Autumnal equinox is usually around the 22 or 23 September. It's the day when the daylight and night-time hours are the same length.

A lot of people go by the months but I tend to go by the equinoxes ! Autumn from Autumnal equinox to shortest day, Winter from shortest day to Vernal (Spring) equinox, Spring from Vernal equinox to longest day and Summer from longest day to Autumn equinox.

FA x

[Weeterrier]

Nope, it's Autumn here FA. My Rhus is turning red, and my tummy is full of plums ;D

[Plocket]

Season of mists and mellow fruitfullness.........

Well we've certainly got a lovely misty morning here today. It's not thick heavy nasty foggy mist, but beautiful, mysterious mist with promise of a sunny day to come

I can't ever remember the dates of the equinox Andy so I have to go by the months - the equinox isn't far off though!

[Plocket]

weeterrier said:

My Rhus is turning red, and my tummy is full of plums ;D

Sounds painfull Weeterrier!!!

[Weeterrier]

Very good Plocket! I love that phrase " season of mists etc.," though that is the only line I know. Must look it up.

[Plocket]

To Autumn


Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run,
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core,
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel, to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.


Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook,
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.


Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,
While barrèd clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue,
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river shallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies,
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn,
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft,
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

[Deleted]

me thinks andy is a witch!!!!!! ;D ;D

[Plocket]

Wikka Andy???

[Weeterrier]

Thanks Plocket

[Shrubrose]

It was Keats wasn't it Plocket? Was he a gardener do you think? Or just a lover of nature and the seasons? I read the first verse and I thought, he's closely observed the wonders of nature. Reading it made me realise anew why I just love autumn.

[Plocket]

Yes it was Keats, but I don't think he was a gardener. I seem to remember he lived with his grandmother for quite a while and died in his 20s of something nasty.

[thecleaninglady]

Died from Tuberculosis when he was about 26 I think.

[Missredhead]

plocket said:

Whens the equinox then Andy? I just go by the months - September, October and November are the autumn months ;D

I meant to say that the horse chestnut outside the garden wall has started dropping conkers too, and it seems too early

Ooooh it'll be bonfires and kicking leaves as we walk to school soon ;D ;D ;D

The conkers on the trees at the bottom of my garden have been dropping off for weeks, the leaves are now changing colour and are beginning to drop too

[Weeterrier]

"To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees"

It has this year, my tree is starting to break with the weight of the fruit. I've had to put an old arch under it to support the branches. Mine are meant to be eaters, Red Devil, but they are very sharp, so it's stewed apples with lots of sugar for me. Bye-bye waistline

[Plocket]

LP picked up her first conkers on the way home from school yesterday. Is it me or are they early this year?

[andy]

plocket said:

Whens the equinox then Andy? I just go by the months - September, October and November are the autumn months ;D

I honestly think the seasons have moved forward a month. Winter being jan, feb and mar, spring apr, may and june, summer july august and sept and autumn is oct, nov and dec !!!

I must admit that today, when i walked across the park opposite where i work at 5.15 am, it was not only very dark but very autumnal.

Bright sunny days and cold clear nights are what we need for good autumn colour so hopefully this weather will continue. The cercidiphyllums at work have started to go golden by the spindle trees are very late this year.

[snowowl]

The leaves have been falling all through the so called summer here .
But we are having some lovely warm sunshine at the moment.
The ground is very dry.
I hope we keep getting a bit more nice weather i get realy down in the winter months i suffer from SAD.

[Weeterrier]

You have my sympathy snowowl, that is horrid.

[Shrubrose]

Well, SO, get a UV light, place it by your keyboard and stay with GWD. The light, the humour and the knowledge here will do you a power of good.

[Plocket]

SAD is not a good thing. I have a friend who suffers from it and although I get a bit fed up at how long the darker months last, I don't suffer myself. The lamp is a good idea Snowy - do consider getting one

[snowowl]

Thanks folks i may try a uv light but expect a grumpy me come october.
I will be counting the days till april wishing my life away i no but cant help it.

[fozzie]

Well P.

Plums are all in cooked and frozen, Apples are just about readyto be harvested. But it cant be autumn I'm still collecting ripe toms.

Fxx

[Deleted]

Yup rowan tree leaves going yellow & falling off, berries already being eaten. Raining now 4 days in a row and was 5ºC yesterday, i would say it is definetely well & truly here!

[Shrubrose]

Has anyone else got a choisya ternata? Mines started flowering again! Is this unusual? I thought they flowered late spring.