Autumnal fun in England this past week

Our time in England is drawing to a close. Tomorrow we chase the sun to the United States, where we’ll spend four nights in Santa Barbara, before journeying back home to New Zealand. In the week and a half we’ve been here the autumn leaves have really started to turn in earnest.

The trees are ablaze of reds, oranges, browns and yellows. The leaves are falling in the slightest breeze, covering pavements and roads in an autumnal carpet.

I had honestly forgotten how much Welly boots (gumboots for Kiwis), raincoats and umbrellas were essential items to have at hand at all times in England. It would be easy to look out the window at the drizzle and grey stay put indoors, but I’d probably feel like a leaf in the compost pile and disintegrate into a mulch of despair before long. So, we geared up and faced the elements (thankfully there were no gale force Welly type winds or horizontal rain to combat – umbrellas are genuinely useable here in Hampshire, England).