Season of mists and all that

I've been back at Daughter 2's in London, trying to help out a bit while her husband's in Birmingham rehearsing for a Christmas musical play about Sherlock Holmes. It was Littlest Granddaughter's October week's holiday, so I looked after her for a few days. Here, a black cat and I went to a pottery painting place not far away from where they live. 

This was fun. 

For Hallowe'en, Littlest designed, and Daughter 2 cut, two fierce pumpkins. 

Here they are in the house window. 

On Saturday we went to a children's farm / play place, where we had more fun. 

There was a huge marquee filled with big building blocks, so she and her mum built a palace with a stable for a donkey (which was also there, for some reason). This took quite a long time. 

The Essex countryside is rather pretty. 

At home, Littlest built a Lego shop that sold potions. See all the bottles on the shelf? 

And this was a blindfold guess-the-taste session. 

So it was lovely to be there. But now I'm home again. 

We went to the Botanics yesterday. Here's my favourite tree, the bald cypress, with my favourite old chap standing beside it. 

Everything was looking lovely in the autumn colours. 

Pity that winter's on its way...

Look at this liquidamber - beautiful.

It's autumn in my garden too - not surprisingly. I should get out there and do some tidying up. Maybe tomorrow.