Early days of winter

We flew down south for a wedding at the weekend. It was a wonderfully happy and joyous occasion. Lots of laughter and more tears than I have experienced at a wedding before but they were all for the right reasons. The bride and groom were back at work yesterday and it must have all seemed like a dream! However they will celebrate their honeymoon in South Africa at Christmas time when they will catch up with the groom's father who could not attend the ceremony, except on Skype from Zimbabwe. I am sure there will be more champagne flowing, some more tears and especially lots more laughter!

We took the red-eye flight from Edinburgh on Saturday morning. That involved getting up at 03.30 but we did see dawn rising from the comfort of our Easyjet seats!

I love taking photos from the air. My camera isn't really sophisticated enough to get really great photos but it's fun to record what's going on umpteen thousand feet below. The network of fields over southern England are amazing to see. All different shapes and sizes and in places you can still make out the remains of the feudal system of apportioning land.

Back home now and winter seems to have arrived with a bit of a bang today. It is bitterly cold but bright and sunny. The garden is glistening in the sunshine and the children found this leaf and it's frosty impression left on the driveway this morning.

When we were coming in to land at Gatwick Airport on Saturday we noticed that the trees still had most of their leaves whereas ours have more or less shed theirs. However there are still some trees which are clinging on to their glowing colour, notably the oaks and beech trees.

I grew up under a copper beech tree and their gingernut biscuit coloured leaves at this time of year are always my favourite.

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In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!

Found items IAVOM

I am on holiday on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay. It is my happy place. Thoughts of Colonsay rattle around in my head each and every day I am not here! I haven't got a vase to share this week but some lovely things I have found over the past few days, which are just as beautiful as a vase of flowers! I hope you agree! Here are some leaves of giant rhododendrons, growing in the outer gardens of Colonsay House. Some skeleton leaves of magnolia. The dried stem of a kelp seaweed. A couple of conkers (can never resist those!), and a branch heavily populated by a number of lichens. The air on Colonsay is so clean that lichens flourish here!

Colonsay postcards - on arrival

The first thing I do, once we have unpacked our car, which has been groaning with all the stuff we need for a week's stay in the holiday cottage, is head for the outer gardens of Colonsay House. It is a place of wonder for me! I particularly love the leaves of the giant rhododendrons. There are many different varieties, all planted in the early 1930s. The outer gardens are generally overgrown, having had little tending over the decades. That makes them even more magical! The old woodmill falls apart a little more every year, but that's fine by me because I love corrugated iron and especially if it's rusted! And of course the bees. Colonsay's beekeeper, Andrew Abrahams, has one of his apiaries on the edge of the pine wood. So lovely - the hum of busy bees and the heady smell of the pines. We are here - finally! Delayed by four months by the wretched virus, but now I am on holiday! Hooray!

the running wave

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