The Imagination Tree

Creative play and learning for kids

Autumn is here!

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Autumn is taking a long time to arrive in the South of England but it is finally creeping in! The leaves are a-crisping and starting to form lovely piles under trees in the parks. Cakie has been discovering the pure and simple joy of leaf kicking. Ahhhh, simple fun. I love it.
This photo reminds me of this one (below) that we took when we visited Hew Hampshire at exactly this time of year, 3 years ago. The foliage was so beautiful. It was pretty impossible to capture the amazing colours on camera.

Rainbow leaves!

And here we are, 3 years later, blessed with two beautiful girls and having fun introducing them to the beauty of the seasons. Autumn is my absolute favourite. Everything about it is delicious and cosy and homely all rolled into one. 
I love the walks in the parks and the woods, looking at the changing leaves and smelling the wood smoke from bonfires. The crisp, sunny days with beautiful golden light, that make it seem like late summer but with jumpers and chunky scarves and gloves! 
And it’s a great excuse for wellie-wearing. We love wellies around here 🙂 
And that wonderful feeling of domesticity when you are able to cook from things that have grown in your own (or friends’) gardens. We have been picking tomatoes for what seems like for ever! They just keep on producing. This week the chilli peppers were ready too. Cakie filled up her little trolley for me and threw away any “dutty” ones in disgust!
She was clearly not at all sure about the quality of this one! I think Mr Slug had had a little nibble (or two!)

Ah, wonderful bounty!

We are still deciding what to do with these. Maybe some passata to store for later on in the year.

These beauties came from my friend Sarah’s super-abundant apple trees in her back garden. We really don’t need to be eating any more desserts at the moment so I searched through my beloved Nigella and found an interesting Spiced Apple Chutney recipe and gave it a go, using one of our chillies.

I love the subtitle to this book. “Baking and the art of comfort cooking.” Yes please- I’ll have me some of that!

I’m not really a chutney-making kinda girl. But recently I have been finding it all too hard to resist, and I must admit, it’s lots of fun. It’s probably just because I like the look of the cute jam-jars all lined up!

And while it is still warm and dry, Cakes is enjoying her trampoline to its fullest! 

While we were bouncing we found a huge pile of sycamore seeds had landed on it (which is a great thing because we don’t want any more sycamore saplings growing in the lawn!) I tried to demonstrate the helicopter trick, but it wasn’t quite as impressive as I remember from my own childhood.

Instead we brought them inside to look at them, then we made a little craft out of them by sticking them to a tree cut from brown card. Lots and lots of gloopy glue (PVA) was needed. Fantastic 🙂
Our own little piece of Autumn for the wall.

Looking forward to the temperature dropping by another 10 degrees or so and coveting a fireplace in time for Christmas!

Comments

  1. RedTedArt says

    Wow! What a busy autumn post! So many lovely different things! ADORE that photo!

    Love your craftiness too! We love sticking too and this is a great project – easy for the little ones to do and very effective!

    Than you for linking up to Kids Get Crafty! Much appreciated!

    Maggy

  2. SarahElisabeth says

    Autumn is such a fun season. Your pictures remind me of some of the Shirley Hughes stories and poems about autumn.
    Like the sycamore idea-must try that. We enjoy your ideas and copy a fair few!

  3. Anna says

    Ooo in which of her books has she written poems about Autumn? I absolutely love Shirley Hughes. Completely. We have the “Alfie Out of Doors” book and that has some lovely poems about the moon and the seaside. I was also remembering Brambly Hedge stories today and I’m sure there is one of those about Autumn too. Thanks! I am off to investigate 🙂

  5. SarahElisabeth says

    “Out and about” has seasonal poems. You are welcome to look at our copy. What really reminded me about Shirley Hughes, though, was a book I read to the little ones last night called “When we went to the park”-really a counting book but has a great scrunchy leaves picture.

  7. Juliet Robertson says

    Greetings from Scotland

    Thanks for such a lovely post. I’m a little addicted to collecting seeds of all shapes and sizes for adding to artwork and small world play indoors and out. Some like, angelica have smelly seeds (similar aniseed) which are extremely interesting.

    Best wishes
    Juliet

    PS Have a look at my listmania if you are looking for books with outdoor themes: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/richpub/listmania/byauthor/A1303Z2LUJUE84/ref=cm_pdp_lm_all