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Autumn: My Season of Bliss

Autumn is my favourite season because it is a time blessed with breath-taking beauty and cherished, close family, memories. When the leaves begin to transform into their kaleidoscope of jewel hues, from fiery reds and oranges to golden yellows and deep purples. The blue berries, Chinese lanterns and thistle pods add amazing pops of vibrant colour, while honesty pods shimmer with silvery elegance. Really, it's a season of new life,  a beginning  not an end, when nature prepares for the winter months ahead by preserving life, that will burst open once again in Spring.  I am reminiscing of the many woodland walks with my husband and our three young sons, kicking through crunchy leaves that became a treasured tradition, as they all grew up! As the day draws to a close, the low autumn sun casts a warm glow on the earth, on gardens, buildings and landscapes, creating a beautiful scene and sense of satisfaction! Creation at its best!

Where It All Began - A Brief Reflection

A brief reflection on where my passion for 'all things nature' began!

Set of 3 photos of Sarah, as a toddler in my muddy vegetable patch.

Exploring the muddy garden and
vegetable patch in all weathers,
not happy to be disturbed for yet
another photo! 1970's.


From being a toddler, growing up in the early 1970's, I was very often found bundled up in layers of mis-matched clothing, hardly feeling the chill in the air in the vegetable garden.

With a seeming penchant for discovery and adventure I would gleefully plop myself down in the rich, fertile earth delighting in the sensory joy of crafting all kinds of earth pies from the treasures I found around me.

It was definitely a time of simple pleasures and innocent exploration, where my parents' garden was my playground and nature my endless source of exciting wonder. Definitely my favourite place to be, outside, up close and personal to all that nature could bring to my small world in the town of Ashford, Kent, in the UK.

Surrounded by nature's inhabitants from cabbage butterflies, slugs and snails, to worms and centipedes, I found 'companionship' in the most unlikely of places! It was in those fully-absorbed and carefree moments that the worms in particular became my curious playmates! Their squirming bodies offering both amusement and, horrifyingly, a fleeting culinary curiosity! 

Another passion was the compost heap. There was always something flying around it, visiting and feeding from it.

My grandparents had a huge, open one that they let me forage in whenever I visited, but under close supervision! It was my treasure trove of broken eggshells, cabbage stalks, carrot and potato peelings.

Their second, smaller compost heap lay beneath a heavy layer of old carpet or rugs, inviting more exploration.  It was warm and alive with 'my' tame families of sparrows and robins who regularly joined me on my dig for treasure!

It always felt like another world, where my grandad and sometimes my grandma would be busying themselves close by, digging, planting, pruning, collecting and whistling away.  They'd tell me all kinds of ditties and stories about life in their modest sized garden, and how they grew all their own veggies and some fruits, and how there was an Anderson Shelter under grandad's potting shed!

When I couldn't play outside, I would copy, draw, sketch and colour in from books, magazines and comics.  When I visited my grandma there was always a brand new colouring book that she'd bought from Leeds Kirkgate Market, on the arm of the small sofa in front of the welcoming open fireplace, for us to colouring in together.

When in 1976 I was bought my brand new set of Usborne 'Nature Trail' books, I was really happy! They were filled with ALL THINGS NATURE! I still have those books on my studio bookshelf today, and I still refer to them!

Where has the time flown?

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