if you go down to the woods today

Yesterday I spent the afternoon at Blaise Castle (the beautiful place where John proposed to me, and where we went on our first date), with my good friends Ros & Hannah, and Baby Rachel. (She's fabulous - have I mentioned that before?!)

It was a surprisingly mild afternoon, but the slippery mud & wet grass underfoot reminded us that Autumn is definitely upon us. 

I do love Autumn, at all of its stages. Yesterday, I appreciated that there was still an abundance of green on the trees & the golden shades of Autumn have not yet fully consumed the branches of every tree.

I think the highlight of the afternoon was when Rachel (11 months old) went on the roundabout with 3 other children, and made a boy (approximately 20 months) cry when she got all excited and climbed into the middle of the roundabout where he was sitting, and held onto his leg. She just wanted to be a part of the action & be brilliantly sociable (just like her mother), but he wasn't loving it. Rachel is already learning how to swing independently on the swings - she figured out that if you rock back & forth and do a little jiggle, the swing speeds up. I have to say that this is brilliant entertainment, and our laughter was contagious - the toddler on the next swing was laughing along with us. 

 Pure joy.