Autumnal fun in England this past week

Our time in England is drawing to a close. Tomorrow we chase the sun to the United States, where we’ll spend four nights in Santa Barbara, before journeying back home to New Zealand. In the week and a half we’ve been here the autumn leaves have really started to turn in earnest.

The trees are ablaze of reds, oranges, browns and yellows. The leaves are falling in the slightest breeze, covering pavements and roads in an autumnal carpet.

I had honestly forgotten how much Welly boots (gumboots for Kiwis), raincoats and umbrellas were essential items to have at hand at all times in England. It would be easy to look out the window at the drizzle and grey stay put indoors, but I’d probably feel like a leaf in the compost pile and disintegrate into a mulch of despair before long. So, we geared up and faced the elements (thankfully there were no gale force Welly type winds or horizontal rain to combat – umbrellas are genuinely useable here in Hampshire, England).

Grandma treated young Alice to a new pair or gumboots and she quickly discovered the largest puddle she could find to test them out in…

whilst feeding the ducks at a lovely pond in Hartley Wintney.

There has been plenty of tree loving and hugging…

Napping by warm fires in country pubs…

And family gatherings in pubs too…

with Aunts, Uncles and cousins…

Tucking into Yorkshire pudding with lashings of gravy…

Scrumptious roast dinners with Granddad and Daddy…

Hugs with my sister…

And cuddles with Granddad…

Watching the leaves falling from the grand Oak trees and spotting squirrels nibbling on the acorns…

Walking alongside the canal…

and under bridges hundreds of years old…

There’s been football run arounds in Grandma and Granddad’s garden and lots of bubble blowing…

So many happy times with family and friends. xx