AUTUMN GLOOM

It was Remembrance Day on Sunday and as usual a large crowd gathered in the town centre for a minute's silence, a service and wreath laying.  I am always impressed at how people turn out for this, especially the young.  Actually I often wonder what young people make of this ceremony.  It must be the only time they see so many men in suits AND ties.  And hats!

But I am pleased too that the World Wars are now appearing in school history curricula; so much more relevant to who we are (and what we want to be) than studying the Elizabethans.

I am always emotional when the bugler sounds the Last Post.   Must be the plaintive notes, because it means nothing else to me.  I always though think how lucky I am.  I was born at the end of the War, which means that, unlike so many others, both my mother and father survived.  Without them, I wouldn't exist.  A bit obvious, but it's pure Fate that they both were engaged in potentially dangerous jobs during the War, yet both lived to tell the tale.  

Or not, actually - very few survivors speak of the War at all.  We are still finding out details now - Churchill's 'secret army' took part in the march-past yesterday for the first time, because we didn't know they existed until recently.   But I often wonder who I would have been if only one of my parents had survived.  I'd be quite different of course.  Maybe not so nice.  Or maybe I still wouldn't have existed.  Who would know?  I suppose I wouldn't.  What miserable thoughts this had all aroused.

To cheer myself up, on my way home, I popped into Tescos for some essentials - sausages, shortbread biscuits, Snickers bars, etc.  But they had their new seasonal bargains display up - snow shovels, anti-freeze, grit for the drive . . .  How depressing everything is!

Luckily the sun was shining and I was able to spend the rest of the day in the garden.  That shouls cheer me up.  Argh!  What's this in the middle of my lawn?

LEAVES HOME

I sat out in the garden this morning to eat my breakfast.  The sun was warm, the sky was blue and, yes, the trees are still green.

This is my garden.  And today is nearly the last day of October!  I'm not wishing for the early onset of winter, but autumn is my favourite season and I have this fear that it might be passed by this year.

Anyway it's so lovely out that we've decided to go down to the coast for a few days.  See you when we get back.

FALL SHOOTS AND LEAVES

I promised some autumn pics of Haslemere. Unfortunately my computer has packed up again. We had a power surge the other evening just after I had loaded them up and deleted them from my camera. So they are lost to me for the moment. I have two fuses and a surge protector between the mains and the computer and one of the fuses duly blew, but still the computer wouldn't restart. I suspect it is also in the autumn of the computer's years. The annoying thing about the laptop though is the extreme sensitivity of the mouse. I have just downloaded an unwanted photograph as my desktop theme for example simply by touching the mouse area too firmly (apparently). I have now had to waste about 15 minutes changing it back.

Incidentally, it's not just the leaves that have benefited from the wet summer this year; there have been an extraordinary variety of fungi. Whilst battling with the infestations in my garden, I have enjoyed seeing the examples I come across in the woods and fields around here. Here are a couple from today.

 

Anyway, to give you a flavour of the colours this year, below are a collection of pics from this weekend from Ramster, a house and garden in Haslemere open to the public a couple of times a year, and the Winkworth arboretum in Godalming.

 

     

 

 

 

AUTUMN YEARS

I mention recently that the autumn colours were now visible here.  I will post some pics of Haslemere later and try to get to a couple of arboreta over the weekend to catch the leaves at their best.  This year, because of the (to put it kindly) peculiar weather, the colours are particularly striking.  We don't have the displays of scarlets and purples such as are famous in Virginia or Kyoto, but this year we have splendid golds and yellows and russets. 

Down the A3 though, on Bramshott Common, are a collection of maples that catch the eye every time you drive past.  They are a memorial to Canadian soldiers who died during the wars.  

Canadian troops trained here during both Wars and 418 of them, who died in the First World War, are buried in nearby Bramshott and Greyshott churchyards.  Many of those who died in the Second World War are buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, north of Guildford. 

Road widening unfortunately meant that the original avenue had to be moved, but new trees were brought in from Canada and planted in 1995, the last one by the Canadian High Commissioner, the visiting Minister for Roads and Canadian veterans and British Legion representatives.  

This is what you see from the A3.

 

 

Soon after the car park, you realise there are Canadian maples just round the corner.

 

Bramshott Common is still used for training and manoeuvres, so I was only half surprised, as I walked along the footpath, when I encountered an armed patrol in full battledress coming towards me.  I stood back into the undergrowth, trying to look inconspicuous, and the walked past, glancing in all directions and waving their weapons from side to side.  The last man through, walking almost backwards, nodded to me and raised his hand as they disappeared into the forest.  They were almost silent in their progress and I never saw them again, so I had to pinch myself to make sure it had really happened.  

Anyway, here are some shots of the avenue.

  

 

 

  

SEASON OF MISTS AND FRUITLESSNESS Part 1

Sussex Border Path Leg 5a

OK, I'm supposed to be taking the rubbish to the tip, ready for our trip up north.  And I haven't started packing yet.  so I can't be long.  But here are some pics from our further walk along the Sussex Border Path.

I love this month.  Autumn is in the air, and there is a definite chill in the early morning, yet the days can be sunny and warm.  The greens of summer are beginning to be tinged with reds and yellows, and the hedgerows are full of delectable treats.  But, no.  This year the fruit just hasn't materialised.  The year has been so dry and then so wet in quite the wrong order and magnitude, that apple trees are often barren and blackberries taste dusty and tart. But the rest was definitely true yesterday.

We began our journey from the Sir Roger Tichborne at Alfold.

 

From here, we were soon onto a woodland path.  One with a seemingly unnecessary notice.

 

The path led through the grounds of the Rikkyo Japanese school, where students were learning javelin techniques.  Perhaps synchronised throwing is to be a new Olympic sport.

 

A nearby house looked rather ranch-like.

But the woodland looked pretty in the autumn sunshine.

 

On the hills we saw what might be red kites, now quite a long way from where they were introduced to the country though.  I need Fabi to identify this.

 

The path followed a ridge through farmland, now harvested, with wide views both north and south.

 

And fairly quickly to Rudgwick, the only village on the walk, and where we therefore had to succumb to an early lunch.  This is that unusual animal, an Italian pub.  Maybe should be called la Testa del Re.

Even more unusual, lunch was an escalope followed by ice cream or coffee for £5.  If only Rudgwick was somewhere other than the middle of nowhere, it would be worth returning for the excellent-sounding Italian menu (and excellent prices!).