Pumpkin Season

 Today we have a beautiful frost so I took a few snaps in the garden early...

 despite the -1c temperature here last night, my passion flower has decided today's the day to bloom
It seems to have a little smiling face, don't you think?  there are about 20 more buds, not sure if the cold will catch them, I might bring a few indoors

 I like pumpkins on display all through the Autumn.... the one on the right stays out all year, I love it's colour.  The little tray was given to me by my lovely Spanish neighbours a long time back, it has small dishes for dips that come out on special occasions, the tray stays out all the time though as it's too pretty to hide away,  the colours are so Seasonal right now.  The little pumpkins will go out for the squirrels soon, but I am so enjoying their beautiful colours and textures.

Hubby makes me a carved pumpkin every year for Halloween, here's this year's.   This time he found instead of cutting the top, you get best results by hollowing from underneath.  We keep it simple these days and don't decorate so much.  My plates have been around for a few years, I'm very fond of them.

 These are some pumpkins we carved a few years back when our boys were little....

 ... and here's our vintage orange pumpkin, Amber, still playful at 16+

 I am going searching for beautiful fungi at the weekend.  This is fly agaric, there is something very magical about it  (it's poisonous so don't ever touch one).  I found this growing in the woods a long time ago and read somewhere that they should grow in the same place every year, but this was a one off.... will let you know if I find any this time.

Thank you so much for all your comments on my last post - all of you had interesting stories to share.  It has also been nice for me to see some comments from bloggers I had lost touch with so I have been visiting some of your blogs too.

Source: Google Images

Throughout life when things have gone wrong I have always without exception been helped somehow by strangers, often they were Christians, always they were kind and wanted nothing in return.


One example  is of leaving home on bad terms when I was young, I had been sleeping on a friends floor for some weeks whilst hunting for a room from the newspaper.  My employer at the time would drive me round on evenings when the London newspaper advertised rooms to rent; I found a place one night and joined the usual queue of hopefuls waiting to view, the landlord wanted  2 weeks deposit on the spot, many of us turned away, I didn't have any money but one of the girls also taking a room paid my deposit and trusted me to return it to her when we both moved in, she had never met me before.

Source: Google Images

Just this week I fell over in town.  A young women with a dear little 3 year old, despite being a busy mum with plenty of things to get on with, picked me up and dusted me down, then took me to sit down in the pharmacy, gave me some water and offered to buy me chocolate and would not leave until she felt I was fully recovered.

I think there is often kindness around us but some of us are uncomfortable accepting it - if we do accept,  how do we give something back? do we need to? maybe in a pay it forward kind of way?
Sometimes doing a kindness is more rewarding for me than the recipient, but I don't always see an opportunity until the moment passes.  I am going to make sure I put acts of kindness on my 2019
calendar;  just a gesture, a listening ear, a helping hand when needed... What do you think? Want to join me?

have you given or received a kindness lately?

Source:  Google Images