Autumn

"Have a happy strike." That's what we may be wishing each other soon as strikes have become a fixture here in France at the start of the school year . No letters,reduced public transport and all the rest. We learn to shrug our shoulders and wait for it to pass.

The days are getting shorter, the mornings and the evenings chillier. The leaves are changing colour but the roses and other flowers are still blooming . We see the turtle who lives in our pond, very rarely these last few weeks. She is getting ready to hibernate under the water,something that I never cease to marvel at. She can pass the winter under the water and often under a thick layer of ice, with no food or air. Each springtime I look anxiously every day to see if she has survived another winter and for six years now she has not failed to pop her head out and say hello. The first chestnuts are dropping from the tree and in front of the school you cannot walk under the horse chestnut tree (see photo)without getting bonked on the head with wonderfull fat shiny brown nuts .At the library we are making of plans for extra weekly storytimes and for Halloween . Oh I do love the autumn!