Turning

There was a bit of a melancholy feeling in the air by the river this morning - it felt as though summer was dying and autumn strengthening its grip. The day had started with a nice sunrise (which I missed), followed by some good light, but by the time I reached the river, it had clouded over. In addition, there wasn't much about - a kingfisher flying upriver was the most exciting thing I saw.

All along the bank, the vegetation was drooping and turning to brown or black as it began to die back. There were no butterflies and very few insects. In the end, I put on the macro lens and concentrated on details, without any great motivation, and I think I took fewer pictures than I have done for months. The shot above was the best of the bunch. It shows a bramble leaf gradually donning its Autumn colours, with seed pods rising between the leaves.

The rest of the day was an improvement. The weather turned sunny and warm and I spend most of it working on preparing the house for the arrival of my cousin and his wife and in between, got some nice shots of butterflies in flight.

They arrived about five and we had a great salad, with local ham and turkey and slices of a pie of chicken, smoked ham and sausage meat. We also had the most creamy, delicious potato salad and coleslaw from Creber's - a local food shop.

We then spent the rest of the evening chatting and catching up on family matters until they went to bed a few minutes ago. Lovely time.