Autumn is here

The weather is changing. We’ve been watching the Norwich forecast (iGoogle rocks!) and see summer has arrived. The converse is true in Ashburton. Autumn is well and truly here, although with the winter solstice just around the corner, should this be early winter? The leaves are falling and the skys are grey.

Jack has gone off on his bike down the road to meet the bus on a couple of lovely frosty mornings. The bus picks him up a mile away, so he goes by bike and chains it up at the end of the road where is waits like a patient rusty steed till his return.

Sean is resolutely sticking to his shorts. Sean has found his sartorial home. And those in the know will be nodding and smiling warmly.

We had alot of rain in the last week. This is a good thing. The whole plains area has been in drought and fires have been a problem. From an upstairs window we watched a fire burn through a large stretch of native bush on Mount Hutt last week, before the rain started. Although, the fire risk didn’t stop the farmers burning their stubble though, more than a few gorse hedges have disappeared in a long scorch mark down the field edges.

Now its rained the mountains are white and covered with snow. So now the boys wait for the winter to take hold properly and for the ski fields to open. That will be a boys only adventure. Jenn hates skiing. Luckily for them Mount Hutt ski field is the first field to open and the last to close each season.