Autumn days and traditions – enjoying outdoors
I love autumn days and it seems N is enjoying the autumn traditions too.
Harvest festival and conkers
Last week was harvest festival at school. That always means a walk back across the village green with all the children collecting conkers. I love watching them all enjoying nature, talking about the conkers they’ve found and stuffing trouser pockets, jumpers and bags with plentiful brown bounty.
Needless to say N was the last to leave which I wasn’t too worried about. With the timings of tennis we always have plenty of time between school pick up and his lesson.
Pumpkins
N’s also noticed one house in the village has its pumpkins in wire hanging baskets. So cue a conversation about picking pumpkins. It seems we’ll be visiting the pumpkin patch at a weekend because it’s not open during the week. Shame because I wanted to go on the inset day when it might have been quieter.
Hot drinks
The final autumn tradition he’s picked up on (apart from lots of snuggles under blankets in the evenings) is hot chocolate. Now I love hot chocolate, but not every day. But every night, N has requested a hot chocolate complete with squirty cream. Of course I have to help him out because he never drinks the full amount.
Autumn days out
Having a birthday (and not having been around for a couple of weekends), meant I was due a day out with N. He couldn’t really say he just wanted to stay on the farm, again. To get him along to a National Trust property, it often means agreeing to do something he wants too.
His choice was to go cycling, so a park visit had to be fitted in before going on to Snowshill Manor. We do need to go further afield to some of the forest cycle paths, but my knee probably isn’t up to that so we need places he can cycle and I can walk rather than cycling only.
The park wasn’t too busy. A few cyclists and dog walkers, but plenty of cycle path space for him to speed along while I walked behind.
We had various discussions walking and cycling around. Sunday mornings are obviously strong thinking time for N.
Autumn nature volunteering – where they would be doing the work, which led on to what I used to get up to in Watch nature group I used to belong to.
Why were lots of little children doing organised exercise in the park, and what was it they were actually doing?
The Sunday trading laws and why we couldn’t go to the coffee shop for a snack.
I love the conversations we now have. Six year olds have a great view of the world and they can tell you all about it, as well as coming up with various phrases they’ve copied off other people.
We’ve not had the chance to kick leaves properly or get to Conker Alley, but autumn is so far looking pretty good for getting outside and enjoying it.
What autumn activities have you been up to recently?
completely agree with you on this one, I love autumn. I used to love it always, particularly for the changes of season & beautiful colours, but my son is born in autumn- halloween, so it reminds me of that time of life and his birth so it’s always going to be a little bit more special now. we have really enjoyed autumn walks, crunching leaves beneath our toes & picking conkers! 🙂 #countrykids
It’s lovely having birthday memories in a season. It’s my birthday in October too, best time to have one
Some lovely autumn traditions here. We love collecting conkers too though haven’t managed to find many this year. I think we went to look at the wrong time. Hot chocolate with cream is amazing and I’m with N on this, I love them every day. #CountryKids
Thanks for your comment. So many people have said they’ve struggled to find conkers this year so I think we’ve been pretty lucky
Love autumn activities. Collecting conkers is fun – it’s one of my favourite things about autumn. I love the conversation with N at the park. It is lovely when they get a bit older and start asking questions about the things they see around them and you get to have a proper discussion with them about things. I’m starting to get that now with Jessica and I love it 🙂 #countrykids
Yes, this age is definitely one of the best I think, in terms of seeing them really developing into young people rather than little children
There is something magic about conkers – I loved them as a kid and still love them now! And with the temperatures dropping, hot chocolate is back on the menu for our boys as well.
Me too with conkers. I think kids these days have lost a bit of the excitement though, now most of them don’t get to play conkers
I do love autumn, it’s such a lovely time of the year to get out and enjoy. What a lovely way to enjoy the afternoon, love your photos. The conker collecting looks fun too 🙂 #countrykids
Thanks Sara. It really is the best time of year. And here it’s still pretty warm which is nice.
This is our favourite time to explore too! There’s so much to see and do during the Autumn months. Even going for a walk or cycling can bring a smile x #countrykids
And we’ve been lucky with the weather so far. Still quite warm and pretty dry too. Lots of opportunities to still enjoy outdoors
It sounds like a brilliant way to spend the day.
I have to say my little ones never finish their hot chocolate either and it would be rude to not finish it off! #countrykids
This looks like my way to spend an Autumn afternoon, I bet you love it when N’s in the mood to mooch around the park with you. Finding something the kids really want to always makes going out with them easier doesn’t it? N Looks like he had a fab time cycling on his bike and chatting with you.
Thanks for sharing your autumnal fun with me on #CountryKids