So, I've had this last week off work and it's been a good time for me. I needed a reprieve from the dull daily mundanities that slowly wear me down like water dripping on stone. This has been my breathing and stretching time, and since even the gods have smiled on my leisure and blessed us with summerlike warmth and sunshine, I've been able to return to my daily commune with nature in the woods and winding lanes, even if only for this brief span.

My woods are russet and gold, filled with that peculiarly golden autumn sunlight that makes it feel like you're walking through molten honey. I've returned with stems of honesty's translucent seed-pods (some people think they look like silver coins, I think they look like full moons) and pockets full of cobnuts, pinecones, acorns and conkers.

I haven't been entirely lazy at home either. I've set in a good store of preserves made from the free harvest of the hedgerows, including some sloe and crabapple jelly, damson and elderberry jelly and rowan and rosehip jelly. Some of the jars will be given away as seasonal gifts, others have been carefully dated and stored in the wooden chest next to the damson gin and wild plums in brandy.

I have cut back old dead growth in the garden and cleared it away, That's always such a satisfying, even liberating, task. I suppose it resonates with some kind of symbolism. Anyway, the spiders were undoubtedly annoyed with me for ruining their careful constructs, but since I've noticed a new curtaining of cobwebs across the trimmed shrubbery this morning, I think they have resigned themselves with good grace.

I have been devilled by so much negativity this year, from the constant petty financial worries, the work frustrations, worry over friends and niggling little health issues. I can't say I've successed in banishing it all, since the causes and events are mostly out of my control, but at least I've managed to sweep some fresh air through the channels.