Autumn days

Ah autumn days and the days grow shorter as the breezes start to stir the autumn leaves. My thoughts recently have begun to turn towards brisk walks along the tide line with the white balls of foam drifting past, only to scud away across the sands and supper in a cosy pub for a special treat in the gathering dusk.

So far the temperature has been remarkably high this year, even for sub tropically inclined west Cornwall but the first misty days of autumn finally came and then cleared with the racing evening breeze to give us  to give the late afternoons a glowing golden light sometimes followed by a wonderful sunset.

This week too I’ve gathered an armful of rich russet bracken and drying seed heads from the Cornish banks to bring into the house to celebrate the autumn season and Spud-Cat snoozed on in a cosy window seat.

The water pump has stood for hundreds of years looking back across the bay towards Penzance where it was cast

Looking down to the sea beyond the old pump that stands beside the house

Breathtakingly beautiful for fleeting moments the evening sunset

I gathered autumn foliage and fading Hydrangeas to decorate the hall window cill

A mermaid sculpture on the old broad window sill

A Vintage Laura Ashley window seat is just purrfect Sud Cat spot to snooze away the showers

Cosy snoozes in a soft window seat

I often think of autumn as the season of sunsets and rainbows, of the tightly packed flocks of starlings defying the winter days to come, as they group to shelter in Marazion marshes finishing the day with fabulous murmurations. For the bird watchers, now is the time that the first migrating birds will start to arrive – surprisingly the humble robin, blackbird and blue tit in the garden may have flown in from the continent to spend their winter in the British gardens. One of the first places that migrating birds would have made landfall in West Cornwall  is in the subtropical Cot valley to rest and feast after their long flight.

Autumn sunshine

The fig leaves are fading

One evening the sunshine suddenly burst through giving the courtyard fountain a magical glow

The joy of the skies clearing to a final sunny moment of golden light

Fountain and Date Palms

Late afternoon

A misty morning and starlings settle to feed on the lawn

A wet morning and starlings arrive with noisy chatter

Wilbur plump and growing a big winter coat ready for the colder weather

And an Autumn supper in a cosy pub?

We visited the Victoria Inn in Perranuthnoe the other evening – autumn and winter are just the time for atmospheric old pubs in the heart of the village don’t you think? I love the old beams, log burning stoves in granite inglenooks and flickering candles and I must admit, the special offer of A Pie and a Pint for £12 each or were all the extra encouragement we needed!
It was simply delicious comfort food for a late autumn evening with mouth watering pastry and gravy to die for entwined around melt in the mouth beef with creamy mashed potato and red cabbage

We just had to try a pudding of course, so chose a very British toffee and ginger pudding that was whisper light to finish our evening as we watched a young couple play scrabble in a cosy corner, gently content in the candle light.

The night felt like velvet as we made our way back up through the fields to our home – so strange how your feet automatically find the trodden path even in the dark and our final ritual of the evening is always to look back down over Mounts Bay with the ring of lights stretching from Penzance to Mousehole. Just one of the joys and compensations of Autumn!