Simple Autumn pleasures

Oh how I do love Autumn - it really is such a lovely time of the year, especially for exploring the outdoors. With so many changes in the air its a very exciting time, fallen leaves, making wild art and of course looking for conkers. We have a lovely secret conker tree that no one else seems to know about - we have found some amazing ones there this year. Also puddle jumping is a huge favourite in Autumn and something both I and the little man indulge in (who can resist jumping in a lovely fresh puddle!) Mr A has also learnt how to use his scooter he got last month for his birthday and it's pretty much not left his side since then. These are all wonderful simple pleasures and a great way to have fun outdoors. ...

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Conkers and a Slow worm

I never grew up with conkers and to my memory I don't recall ever seeing a conker tree in South Africa and with the little man really coming into his own now he is three we have had a lot of excitement over finding our own secret conker tree, which has yielded an abundance of amazing conkers of which no other child has seemed to have discovered, leaving us with the pick of the bunch. Last Autumn we were living in another village that had a huge school and although we knew where all the conker trees were we never actually even found one as all the school kids got to them first. As I have said the conker tree has been pretty much untouched - it actually makes me wonder how many local kids actually explore this pretty field which lies next to a river, a place we visit regularly, anyway back to the point we had found a few conker still in there spiky shell and have had a lot of fun getting them out. We have also been collecting leaves and acorns for our natural table ......

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