Thank you to everyone for your kind wishes about my mum. We are spending a lot of time preoccupied with her and with her care, so I'm not at my computer much but will check everyone's blogs when I can and I do appreciate the comments very much!
In what free time I have, I am taking every chance to do something that is NOT involved with sickness, like our walk in Hermitage Woods, West Berkshire, just a couple of weeks ago. It was before we had the high winds but we knew that we would lose the autumn leaves very soon and Hermitage Woods quickly took my award as Best Autumn Woodlands Ever. They were planted with so many different kinds of trees, each with their own characteristic appearance, undergrowth vegetation and even wildlife.
Above is a general view, but one of the best things was that there were so many details to examine, like this pretty silvery leaf...
and these orange leaves, almost like sparks fluttering in the wind.
Here's a blazing glade of yellow.
Here, my shadow on the smooth trunk of a beech tree
Yellowed bracken caught the light.
Looking up, everything was blue and lacy
And here are burst chestnut-cases their nuts long since scattered. .
The woods are Open Access land,. This means that their owners allow the public to walk there unrestricted. We so appreciated their generosity. So who owned them? We discovered it was the Gerald Palmer Trust, part of the Eling Estate. I looked up the Gerald Palmer Trust and its objects are to:
"Advance the Christian religion more particularly according to the teaching and usage of the Orthodox Church. Advance medical research and the study of medicine. Relieve sickness and/or poverty."
To that should be added "To lift the spirits and remind ordinary people of the beauties of Nature."
