Conker Picking & Embracing Autumn {The Ordinary Moments #34}

The colour of the leaves subtly changing from green to orange, brown, yellow or red, one by one escaping the branches of the tree and landing delicately on the crisp cold floor to make a blanket of colour on the ground. Layers, scarves and chunky knit jumpers comforting the chill in the air as they wrap around our still slightly sun kissed skin. The warm glow of candles that flicker in the dull afternoon light filling the room with a comforting aroma. It’s Autumn.

I love the idea of Autumn. The idea that is. I love the idea of the romantic notion that we have been fed at what autumn should look like. You know all cosy and beautiful, all Hygge. Hey maybe once I have gotten over the transition, missing the heat and the freedom of summer I can embrace it (this usually come by October) but alot of this week has been spent needing slippers again, wondering what the heck to wear and debating whether it is too early to put the heating on. I am a bit nesh to be honest and the cold makes my joints hurt so for that reason alone I don’t usually like the very onset of Autumn.

The girls however, love it. Children have this wonderful magical knack of making even the most ordinary of things feel like amazing adventures and it is one of my favourite parts of parenting and one that I never expected. That maybe my children would teach me much more about life than I would teach them. They have been talking about picking conkers every single day since the colour of those leaves started to change. Every day in the car on the way to school we drive past the fields and I say that yes when it isn’t raining we will go, to crunch in leaves and collect some conkers. After all no one really wants to walk through soggy leaves do they? Well ok maybe children do but I am more of a crunchy leaves in the crisp autumn sunshine kind of girl.

So when we were graced with some of that special sunshine I got with the autumn program. Outings for us feel like that are changing of late. Of course children grow but when you are in this first few years it can feel hard work and never ending and to know we are the other side of that now makes me excited. It makes me wonder what life will even look like next year and makes me try and embrace the now, next conker season will look very different so we wrapped up and got our walk on.

We walked over the bridge where Eddy knew there was the best conker tree right in the middle of some overgrown bushes, we walked through the small opening we could find like it was a secret garden crouching down as we went and stepping over branches on the ground. It opened up to an expanse of beautiful yellow leaves on the floor mixed with the bright shiny conkers asking to be collected like treasure. Eva would inspect each one to check it hadn’t been nibbled by hungry squirrels and Roma just wanted to pick the biggest ones she could find. 

Once we had exhausted this area we walked along the river to find another huge tree and luckily for them they have a very tall daddy who is willing to shake the branches so that the conkers fall, still in their shells, to the ground like it is raining treasure. My gosh were they happy, there is nothing better, more exciting and more satisfying than not only spotting a conker and running screaming “I found one” but being able to find one that is in fact still in its shell to be trod on and gently teased out with their feet, only for the shell to burst open and require chasing after it as it rolled with speed across the path, the panic that the other sister would pick it up was real!
What is better than that? Well actually finding that you have a DOUBLER is. Eva was always so excited when there was more than one conker and aswell as loving the huge ones Roma was taken with the tiny tiny ones she found and would say ‘ Ah I love this baby one’ in the sweetest little voice like she was talking to a real baby. It was the most fun we have had for ages. 

So no I am not the biggest fan of the Autumn (I’ll just always be a fair weather girl) but I do love the different kind of adventures we can have as a family, the memories we can make and the huge loot of conkers we then come home with to both scare the spiders away (apparently they don’t like conkers) and make a very cute autumn display. Once they have been counted and splayed all over the lounge floor that is!
Xx

Have you ever seen such a happy face!

Linking with Donna What the Redhead said for the Ordinary Moments