My only solace in Autumn, a season I generally regard to be a sodding miserable time of year (the end of glorious summer and a dreadful realisation that we have six odd months of cold, wet darkness to come), is...

The colour.

The fantastic colour.

All the photos below were taken by me today on my tiny little old phone (apologies... it has a terrible camera on it - but who needs a great camera when you're surrounded by colour like we are right now).

My boy and I spent an hour and a half this afternoon, walking around the area, learning (well... he was learning) which leaves disappear in the winter and which stick around (and how to predict which leaves will do what), what colour cows' eyelashes are, how to age cow pats and why old pats look the way they do, why ducks and drakes (mallards) look different and why do rivers exist, where they come from and where do they go.

It's a big, big, fascinating world when you're nearly six! 

Or twenty six, thirty six, forty six etc etc (if he's anything like his father)…