October

It's official it's Autumn. It feels like autumn and it looks like autumn, it crept up on us unawares and settled itself in quietly, pushing the long days of Summer away. We have the warmth of the summer days briefly but then the chill creeps in and the evenings are suddenly short with a bite in the air.

The mornings are misty and eerily quiet, the leaves are fluttering down and carpeting the ground with a quietly rustling soft surface to walk on. The cats (and dogs on occasion) chase the errant leaf that skims along the path, and the best part....the glorious sunsets we have been having. Although earlier and earlier they light the sky with reds, oranges and on occasion a wonderful heavy blue light that is there one minute and gone the next.

The camera can never do them justice, so I don't dash in to grab it, I sit or stand perfectly still and drink in the sight storing it in my mind as protection from the dark dismal evenings of winter ahead.

We grab our jackets or cardigans and walk the dogs in the fading light, admiring the changing landscape all around us, drawing closer together for a warmth that is needed in the rapidly chilling evening. Then it's home to tuck the chickens up for the night, they nestle on their perches and huddle together in their familiar formation, a pecking order has been re-established since the demise of Mother and now all is organised and harmonious again.

I am slowly making the house cosy and ready for the colder nights of the winter to come. More and more we find ourselves cocooned in the living room, Lovely Hubby working at the computer, me scouring recipe books and magazines for inspirational warming foods for winter, and ideas for makes for my upcoming craft fairs.

All four pets gravitate to the living room over the course of the evening, so we work to the gentle hum of 2 cats and 2 dogs snoring and twitching in their sleep reliving their lively day here on the farm.

Every now and then one of us will look up and make the offer of "another coffee or something stronger", but sometimes the thought of leaving your warm cosy seat is too much to bear so it's a "no I'm fine" and we continue on our peaceful evening, engrossed in our separate tasks but happy in the knowledge we are together and sometimes the world is a good peaceful place.

Sue xx