Living in a seaside town has lots of benefits; especially one as well positioned as Brighton. We get a beach to play on in summer (pebbles and all), a refreshing coastal breeze, the drama of violent storms over the sea and a constant flurry of new people to look at. But I think that Brighton really comes alive in autumn. When my brother and I were children, we used to spend a lot of time at Preston Park, and it’s still one of my favourite places to go at this time of year. Dan and I went on a quest to find some conkers this morning – apparently spiders don’t like the smell, so leaving them on the windowsill can be a good deterrent to keep our eight-legged friends at bay.
We found some blackberries in the hedgerow. It gave me flashbacks to the summer, when I made jam for the first time ever. I hope the relatively mild autumn we’re having so far is going to mean we’ll have berries out for another few weeks yet.
I love the hidden clearings in Preston Park. We met a squirrel here. I love squirrels. There was a sign requesting that people don’t feed the squirrels as it attracts rats. I don’t love rats quite so much. Not wild ones anyway.
I’ve been noticing lots of unusual flowers around Brighton recently. Some of them look like anemones; some of them like alien lifeforms. These are pretty normal though. Pretty and normal. I love the orange.
It’s taking a long time for the trees to turn this year. When I was little, it was always September. We’d crunch our way back to school in new uniforms and the chunkiest school shoes I was allowed on a carpet of auburn and gold. It’s not really like that yet. But it’s starting to happen now.
I thought this was cool. Daisies still peeking out from the first few fallen leaves. Is it April or October? Who knows, who cares. The seasons are changing.
We found conkers, by the way. Not many, but the trees are abundant.
What’s your favourite spot for an autumn walk?
Hello Hygge 
Beautiful pictures. I have never heard of cookers before, to what are they similar?
Thank you! Conkers are the seeds of a horse chestnut tree – they’re often used in children’s games where they hang the conkers from a string and swing them at each other’s conkers – the person whose conker smashes the other person’s wins 🙂
Meant to type conkers and it auto corrected. Sorry
Greenwich Park is my favourite place for a walk regardless of the season, but Autumn is the best for the array of colours. With hundreds of trees in the park, at this time of year you get every autumnal shade you can imagine, wherever you look. Stand at the top of the hill by the General Woolfe statue and you can drink in the view of the London skyline. Sheer bliss, particularly at sunset!
Greenwich Park is gorgeous! I love the long walk up to the observatory – you’re right, such an amazing view from up there! I like the fact London has these little pockets of beautiful parkland to explore. Thanks for stopping by!