Autumn Colours at Winkworth

It was two degrees on Saturday morning. 

The Arctic winds had decided to visit and the weather just went from cold and grey to positively freezing (okay so I lived in the tropics most of my life and anything below 5 degrees is always freezing for me). Coincidentally, that was the day we had chosen to visit this little known place run by the National Trust, called Winkworth Arboretum, to see the autumn colours in all their glory. 

While I was eager to click some pictures, we were meeting two friends and their two daughters so V1 and V2 were even more eager than me to make this trip. 
And then the fun began.

First our friends got held up due to car trouble. Then we reached Winkworth to discover that almost half of London had the same bright idea as us and there was a mile long queue to enter the Arboretum, compounded by the fact that their parking was full and they were letting a car in only when one car left (it took us half an hr to get to Winkworth and another half hr to get in). Finally after what seemed likes ages spent waiting; and it always seems like ages when you have two toddlers who ask you "How much longer?" every 10 seconds and you keep dreading when they will utter the T word (toilet), Lady luck decided to shine on us and we got in.

It was freezing in the Arboretum and because I refused to wear gloves since they hampered my holding the camera, my fingers were numb and had lost all sensation and I started wondering how long it would take for my fingers to get frost bite. Luckily we saw a horse carriage that got the boys all excited and so Vj took the boys on the horse carriage while I walked around the next fifteen minutes and shot some pictures on my own. 

Winkworth has some beautiful foliage to offer but in terms of magnitude, it is really small - just a small clump of beautifully coloured trees here and there. I had actually expected to see entire hills covered with autumn colours, like you see in the pictures of  'fall country' from US and Canada and so was quite disappointed with the few trees around. Having said that, I have a feeling Winkworth would actually be more stunning in summer when the bluebells and daffodils are out and cover the meadows and the walks all over the hills around the forest/ Arboretum.

If you visit, do carry food along as the cafe hardly has anything to offer and the queues are unbearably long. as are the queues for the rest rooms (there are hardly any facilities on the property).  And be prepared for the long queues to get in during the weekends.

Finally, our friends managed to get in and join us and the 4 kids were thrilled to meet each other. None of them was the least bit interested in the autumn colours so we picked some leaves, posed with the owl statues and the Halloween posters and then took another carriage ride through the forest. And then we all went to our place and continued the fun over dinner and some wine while the kids jumped around. 

Altogether a great Saturday.

Here are some pictures from the trip -

The Colours of Autumn...

"Autumn is second spring... where every leaf is a flower" ~ Albert Camus

Every morning on the way back home after my walk, I stop to pick up leaves in the park... yellow leaves spotted with brown, red leaves smattered with yellow, green leaves beginning to turn orange; anything that catches my eye, I pick up and bring back home. 

As a result of my daily scavenging, I managed to find quite a little treasure -  leaves in a myriad of shades; yellows, browns, orange, rust, flaming red; each one, a living proof of the beauty of autumn, of Nature's one final burst into flamboyance; into a glorious riot of colours before it settles down to don the drab, insipid and the desolate monochromatic cloak of winter. 

Here are a few shots of the beautiful leaves I picked up. 

For more pictures, do visit this link on the Rainbows and Cloudbursts page on Facebook. 

Finally, I know I promised to put up pictures of my home and I haven't forgotten. I worked on this for so long that I wanted to share this first. The next post will be on pictures from my home. Cross my heart! 

Spring Series - Part III: Mad about Magnolias

I have been going mad. 

Insane. Crazy. Demented. Deranged. 

No, not because of the magnolias. As far as I know, they aren't the 'phoren' cousins of the Datura and do not contain any psychotropic substances or hallucinogens or produce any mind altering chemicals!

No, its something else!
I have been in holiday planning mode! And I am one of those people who score quite high on the obsessive compulsive scale. Holiday destinations are short-listed after digesting a few Lonely Planets. Then the short-list and itineraries are finalised after participating in travel forums. B&Bs/ Hotels/ Self Catering (an option that's these days far more preferable with 2 kids) are selected after hours spent checking them out on Trip Advisor and the Lonely Planet website. It usually takes me about 1-2 days to finalise a hotel/ B&B as I read each and every review of each one I short-list! And once the destination is in place, I send out mails with To-do lists, and itineraries which have dates and time carefully spelt out! As I said, when it comes to holiday planning, I am as anal as they get!

Not any more! I have suddenly discovered that there is a nation of people who are way more organized & more obsessive compulsive than I am & that my friends, ain't a very happy feeling!

For the last couple of weeks, I have been trying to book a few weekend getaways for summer & a week long holiday in June during the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. And guess what? 

Nothing is available! 

Nothing! Zilch! Nada! 

Not only is everything booked, but most places are booked till August/ September and in some cases, till the end of the year!!! And then there are a few great ones who have their holidays planned out till 2014!!! I thought I was obsessive compulsive but these guys make me look like a toddler who has just learnt to walk, in comparison!

Most of the emails in my inbox read like this ~

"We are sorry but we are unable to ..."
"Thank you for considering us but..."
"We are sorry to have to inform you .... but you could try X, Y, Z..." 

And then come the mails from X, Y, Z...

"We are so sorry... but you could try A, B, C..."

And on goes the game of English whispers! I believe, that between all the X,Y,Zs and the A, B, Cs that we have been through, we have probably covered all the B&Bs and hotels from Arundel to Brighton to Cornwall to Devon to Essex to Kent to Wales and York!!!!!

Phew!!!!

Whatever happened to spontaneity, people???  To waking up one lazy morning, deciding I need a holiday, packing one's bags & driving off into the unknown? To living in the moment, to trusting your instincts, to taking yourself by surprise? To listening to your heart and letting the head take a back-seat for once? Is that antiquated and out of date already? 

If it is, I cannot think of a greater tragedy! For it's those spontaneous beings who make life so much more exciting, not the boring, doddery, analytical, planned souls like me! 

As I ruminate over this change that seems to have gripped my fellow beings, I am leaving you with images of something I did really spontaneously; spent a day walking around aimlessly, clicking pictures. These are of one of my favourite flowers - Magnolias. For more pictures in the series please visit this link .

Spring Series - Part II: Blossom by blossom, spring begins.

"For winter's rains and ruins are over,
And all the season of snows and sins;
The days dividing lover and lover,
The light that loses, the night that wins;
And time remembered is grief forgotten,
And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,
And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins."
~ Algernon Charles Swinburne

And blossom by blossom the magic begins......

There is something so magical, so romantic about Spring blossoms. Every house, every lane, every park, every where you set your sights, you will find that even the most reticent and unobtrusive of trees has suddenly shed its shyness and covered itself unabashedly with blooms - from the elegant magnolias to the happy tulips to the sunny daffodils to the delicate bluebells and snowdrops.

It is almost as if Nature is in a hurry to shed its monochromatic winter cloak and don a multi coloured cloak, filled with many hues and shades - from bright sparking white, to soft and romantic pinks to summery yellows and blissful blues; every shade and hue imaginable, is out there.

This series of pictures is an attempt to capture the magic and the romance of Spring - hence, I tried to keep the pictures, at least most of them, soft and feminine.

For more pictures on this series, please visit the album on the Rainbows and Cloudbursts Facebook page.
Watch out for the next album, which I have decided to call, Mad about Magnolias! :))

So long!!!

Spring Series - Part I : The Crocus and the Snowbells...

"Spring has come. The Earth is like a child that knows poems" ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Come Spring and , it seems as if Nature has begun an onslaught to snatch back control from a harsh, cold and grey winter.

All of a sudden, the dullness of the greys are replaced by pops of colour everywhere you look. Blooms are bursting forth everywhere - the hard, barren ground suddenly looks like a rainbow colored valley, leafless trees suddenly bloom with an abandon and florist shops and super market shelves are suddenly filled with a myriad of colourful tulips, daffodils and hyacinths...

The beauty that Spring unleashes simply takes my breath away! This series is my attempt to capture Spring in all its glory and its phases...

First part of this Spring series is The Crocus and the Snowbells. Here are some pictures from the series.

For more photos in this series, please visit the Rainbows and Cloudbursts page on FB. Coming up next in the Series is Spring Blossoms!