AUTUMN COLOUR

I kind of feel like autumn has passed me by. We seemed to go straight from summer to incessant rain to winter. Only in the relatively short spells of sunshine of the last few days, have I noticed the colour in the trees and in the land. The moor just goes pale brown with green patches, but the fringes have a little more colour. These red leaves are from the small Acer in the garden but the rest has been looking pretty sad for weeks now.

Colour outside the garden.........

I'm beginning to wonder if Gorse is ever NOT in flower:

I find the light at this time of year, if there's even a hint of sunshine, just magical. 

This fungi has almost covered a discarded log in a corner of the garden:

The river is running very high after all the rain:

Trigger is definitely blue now unless the sun shines:

I'm finding it very difficult to find anyone to print the cards of my drawings. No one seems to ring back if you leave a message, despite the fact that they're potentially going to make money out of you. Photos aren't so much of a problem, but fine line drawings are not easy. They won't be going on sale any time soon. 

Am writing this sitting in front of the fire eating chestnuts that we collected from a woodland walk last weekend and roasted in the ash can. They're delicious and remind me of an urban childhood, walking down Oxford Street in London with my Grandmother at Christmas time and the smell of them coming from the street vendors' stalls. My Grandmother was a terrible snob, who thought eating in the street very uncouth, so I never got to eat them then; I did so when I was old enough to go on my own though. Until next time, have a lovely weekend and here are Snippet and Jack today. 

OVERFLOWING RIVER & HAPPY NEW YEAR

Well a happy new year to you all. My first time up till gone midnight for nine years on new year's eve and I'm still feeling a bit delicate. I don't really drink at all these days so alcohol was not an issue - just lack of sleep! We had a lovely time though. 

My Mum told me brightly yesterday that we were due for at least a week without rain. My dripping coat and waterproof trousers would dispute that. It's better, but that's as far as I would go. The road is no longer a river and you can see the damage the water has done. Pot holes have deepened, channels have been routed at the sides and new holes have appeared. The stream looks almost normal and the deltas have receded, leaving alluvial deposits in their wake. These pictures are from the river I suspected had burst its banks in the last post. Here's the before picture from a month or so ago:

And this is the same bridge two days ago - Scary! :

Yesterday I decided to hang some washing out in what I thought was a window of opportunity....how wrong I was; it had to come in again ten minutes later. As I grabbed our line prop, I was horrified to find it covered in green slime which no amount of hand wiping on the grass would remove. This has never happened in the five years we've had it....such is the extent of this year's dampness! It's misty today which at least is a change. Yesterday morning was beautiful and I strode out with no waterproof trousers or cover for the camera, only to see this coming:

I actually ran.....not good over rough terrain in wellies after four hours sleep I can tell you but I just made it back in time. Just had a call from my mum...again. She has THE BUG and I have to go on a mercy mission to the chemist before Wednesday's half day closing (yes - it's like stepping back in time here), with Origami Boy and friend who weren't expecting to have to go out; they're NOT happy. At least she's not forecasting weather today. 

Until next time here's a lovely sky from yesterday morning before the storm clouds came. 

DOWN BY THE RIVER

I haven't dared go down to the river while the rain has been torrential, but this afternoon I decided to risk it. Not cascading over the bank but running very high and fast. I always panic as Snippet trots along the bank and skips over stones mid-stream. One false move and he'd be washed away. He's not a water dog and has never swum. He prefers to tear the bank up with his teeth searching for rodents....not something we encourage obviously!

This is the Teign, which comes out at Teignmouth and has different pronunciations within the settlements along its way to the sea. Around here, it's known as the 'Teen', At Teignmouth it becomes 'Tin'mouth and in Drewsteignton is Drews'tane'ton. Here we are pretty close to its source and this section is the North Teign. It is possible than Teign comes from the Celtic word for water: Ta. 

A sense of speed here!

This is one of the two clapper bridges over this section of the Teign, the second of which is at the top of this post; there is a third close by over Wallabrook, a stream which joins the Teign at this point. Clapper comes from the Anglo Saxon 'cleaca' which meant bridging the stepping stones. The top one is a more classic example but I love this little one where the river narrows and the water gushes. 

The sky today was battleship grey; the kind of light that means having to turn the lights on when you get up and not turning them off all day. The camera has unfortunately lightened it, which I didn't realise until I downloaded them. These from yesterday are better in that respect:

Trigger's field is the one in the middle so you can see how exposed it is. The shelter belt of trees beyond proved very useful today protecting me from the biting North Easterly wind as I walked down to the river which you can see snaking into the distance. I met the ponies yesterday too and numbers 10 and 3 were very sweet together. They must be at least four months apart but are the same size!

I'm afraid you will be seeing a lot of our little Nuthatch over the coming months as I can't resist him.....or her. Not quite sure on that front.

And finally, a couple of Snippet; one looking like no breed I've ever seen and the other in the 70 mile an hour winds on Sunday. Until next time...........have a good rest of the week.