Autumn

I love autumn. It has to be my most favourite season. 

I love the golden light of the sunrise. I love the smell of ripening tomatoes on my front porch and the faint smell of wood smoke in the air. 

(I do not love the smell of the smoke from controlled burns, or the sight of massive plumes of smoke which accompanies it. It can be quite worrisome until you realise that it's a controlled burn and not a bushfire in Mount Clear!)

I love the misty mornings and the sunny, warm afternoons and the chilly evenings.

At this time of year the sun is lower in the sky and shines directly in through the windows at the front of the house. It comes in all year round, of course, but in summer and winter it is more diffuse.

Because the sun is lower in the sky, in the autumnal afternoon it sits behind the trees at the back of the garden and bathes the courtyard and vegetable garden in a beautiful dappled, golden light.

The markets and farm shops are full of nectarines and peaches, pumpkins and squashes, the last of summer's raspberries and blueberries, autumn's apples and blackberries, cabbages and cauliflowers, peas and green beans.

It is just possible that I might have been over-excited by all this bounty at the market and mushroom farm yesterday and bought too much in the way of fruit and vegetables, or at least too much for us to eat this coming week. I may have to get cooking and processing. And reorganise the freezers so I can squidge a bit more in

Morning light, looking east, towards Hill House:

That is cloud, not smoke.
It faded away as the sun rose up

Zucchini plants, still flourishing despite the much cooler nights:

Pretty Kitty Kats:

Brandy

Whiskey

I've just paid their annual registration fees. I know I've said it before but I still think that Lindsey gets more for her money with two Great Danes for her $86 than I get for two cats, one a teeny, tiny cat at that, for my $86