What a beautiful Autumn it has been – lots of golden rays, a few dewy, sparklingly misty mornings and of course, a regular carpeting of wonderful crisp leaves!
The delicate frame of the Tortoiseshell butterfly belies their (relatively) hardy nature. These strikingly marked visitors can be spotted through most of the year in Sussex. This beauty, resting for a while on the terrace, coordinated perfectly with the Autumn golds, bright oranges and deep browns in the garden.
Leaf clearing is always more than a month long task here; the effort and regularity of the task keeping us warm as the temperature dips!
The images below of our ‘leaf heap’ by the vegetable garden show how enormous the mound there is – waist high in places and distinctly higher in others… those hard working worms will be busy doing their magic, and we’ll have lots of nutritious compost for 2023… bring on the veggies! 🙂
The kitchen compost area has four compost heaps – below is one of the smaller ones; made double height in an effort to keep Oscar off it. But a bit of mountaineering is a small challenge for one so committed to his ‘compost checking’ duties! The result usually means he needs a serious face scrub to maintain his good looks!
We are blessed with extraordinary fungi in many months of the year – November has seen Funnel Fungi taking centre stage – so smooth and creamy in colour; beautiful but poisonous.
Sarah Addison Allen
“It looked like the world was covered in a cobbler crust of brown sugar & cinnamon.”
The Maple is the last tree to lose her colour here – now a marvellous tricolour; upper leaves still deep, rich red. Crimson lower down, then bright yellow and lime green at wider lower levels. Perhaps it was an autumn Maple that inspired the idea of coloured fairy lights!
Some rabbits remain, but the hoards we had earlier in the year are perhaps tucked up in cosy burrows. The deer still visit most days – tall and magnificent.
Lauren DeStefano
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.”
Charmaine J Ford
“Don’t wait until the fourth Thursday in November, to sit with family and friends to give thanks.
Make every day a day of Thanksgiving!”
The Oaks 
One of the rewards of a autumn walk is collecting mushrooms. We used to do it on a previous country home we had, now we get to enjoy other people’s gardening efforts. Lovely images of autumn, Emma.
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How lovely – sharing from the garden is such a joy; for both parties! Thank you, Suzanne.
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Simply beautiful! Thank you, Emma!
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Thank you so much, Sandra! Nature is so beautiful – and grounding!
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Everything looks so beautiful. I especially like the butterfly photograph, so exquisite!
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Thank you so much – butterflies are beautiful!
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These are fabulous shots, but I particularly like the fungi. This is such a celebration of autumn!
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Thank you so much Margaret – I do find fungi amazing and wonderful in every sense!
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You have made the best of the colours in this gallery – either blending as with the leaves or the fungi, or contrasting like the well composed maple and its background. You already know I like the misty verbena and web.
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🙂 Thank you so much, Derrick!
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The ability to see beauty in the dying of the year is a real gift. Thank you for sharing it. M
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And thank You for the inspiration to take time, watch nature and understand her cycle! 🙂
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