Autumn Days

Mr EC and I were out walking the other day and he said to me "I'm sure there weren't this many acorns last year". "Don't be ridiculous" I said, "a tree will produce roughly the same amount each year" and suitably told off he said no more about it. Several days later whilst scrolling through facebook I noticed a post from a friend, talking about a "mast" year. Have you ever heard of this ? A mast year is when certain species of trees produce an unusually large amount of nuts or fruit, and this year is a mast year. You can read about it here, but basically it happens every few years, as a way for trees to ensure they produce more nuts than animals can eat, thereby ensuring their propagation and survival. It's also thought that due to the extreme heat during the summer this year, trees were under stress and a larger amount than usual of nuts has been produced, again to ensure their survival. I was really surprised to read about this, I've never heard of it before, so it turns out, much to my annoyance, that Mr EC was right. I was very magnanimous and did tell him though.

And actually, now I come to think of it when we are out walking Pixie, we are crunching our way through paths loaded with acorns, they are everywhere. Pixie is very camera shy. when my phone goes anywhere near her she looks away, the photo above is as good as it gets. She is super cute though.

We walked round our local nature reserve, Dinton Pastures, last week. There are a few lakes there, and we walked round the largest one, Black Swan Lake. No idea why its called that, there are no black swans - does such a thing even exist ? Clearly, as was evidenced by the mast year knowledge (or lack thereof), I am not to be trusted when it comes to nature-y things! There was plenty of other wildlife though ...

... and lots of beautiful tree-lined paths to explore ...

... the trees are glorious at this time of year with leaves in every shade ...

... we grabbed a quick coffee to have on the go ...

... and walked back via the activity centre ...

... bit too cold for anyone to be out boating though ...

Back home I took a quick wander round the garden. There are still some flowers blooming - are these a type of chrysanthemum ? Can anyone tell me ? They were planted by the previous owners of our house so I'm not sure. They are so pretty though ...

.. and this rose is still hanging on, just about ...

We even have some grapes growing! They're delicious!

... and the acer is looking fabulous ...

Back inside I've been progressing my Millenium cross stitch, and yesterday I finished the William Shakespeare motif. This only leaves 2 motifs to do, then some backstitching in the centre, and backstitched lettering to do round the central border, and it will be all done. I can see the end at the light of the tunnel now. It may even get done this year which would be amazing.

Taking a break from the big kit I worked on a really quick little design for Halloweeen ...

... I decided to make it into a card for Mr EC. The pattern is a free one that I found on pinterest.

Do you like my new Halloween mug above ? Isn't it so sweet ? I had a trawl through the cheapy shops - Poundland, Home Bargains etc - this morning for some Halloweeny bits to decorate our front room but I'll show you more of that another day!

Til next time, happy crafting,

Jillxx