Signs of Autumn

I feel as though autumn is really on it's way now that the clocks have changed & the nights are drawing in. Jordan went back to school today after being really ill with a fever & a nasty rash (we thought it might have been chicken pox but the doctor said it was a viral infection). I have been pretty wobbly with a similar thing too. Lee had to take 2 days off work to look after us! But now Lee is away for a few days with work so I have had to get out & about again. Phew! The school run nearly did me in for the rest of the day!! I had to come home & have a sit down for a bit to recover!! (Lee has gone to London & Nottingham- Robinhood country! We are really enjoying the BBC series at the moment so it will be fun for Lee to see a little bit of Robinhood history!)
Well, the weather was gorgeous today- that lovely autumn weather where the sun shines in a crisp blue sky, the air is cold & everything smells fresh... Makes me think of a song we used to sing at primary school called Autumn Days. It was my favourite! The twins wanted to play in the garden so we all pottered out there for the morning. To begin with the boys played in the sand pit & with their Little Tikes cars but they soon discovered the ornamental pears that had fallen off the tree. They spent ages picking them up, collecting them in a bucket together & offering them to next door's dogs (who weren't in their garden!). It was lovely to see them enjoying nature & playing happily together. Timmy took the bucket of slightly squishy pears everywhere with him for the rest of the day, emptying the contents of the bucket into all sorts of other containers so he could count them. He liked the smell of them too. He wrinkled up his nose & kept saying 'I can smell something' & would then sniff loudly. Made me giggle!

Needless to say, the bucket & it's contents were greatly admired by Jordan & his friends on the school yard at home time today & when we got home (after a quick trip to Tesco to buy cereal & watermelon-Jordan's new favourite fruit!) all three boys rushed out into the garden to pick up more pears before tea.

The BIG news for today is that I received a letter from Miss Hogan, Jordan's old nursery teacher, saying that Timothy & Luke have places to start nursery school on January 8th 2007! My goodness they are growing up! Better get a move on with the old potty training then............ EEEEEKKKK!!

PS In case you are thinking that the pink flower isn't very autumnal I did take the photo of it today. It is one of a group of them that the boys & I planted as seeds back in May that have been flowering steadily for a month or so. We also planted nasturtiums, marigolds & a few other wild flowers that I don't know the names of. It is very satisfying to have planted seeds, nurtured the seedlings & then have such gorgeous results to look at every day.