England In October

It's easy to fall into the trap of being a constant complainer here in England. Part of the English culture is to gripe and moan about how miserable things are all the time. The Brit's favourite topic for whinging is the weather. Invariably, when someone finds out that I have moved from America, one of the first questions asked is how do I find the English weather. The question is asked with a certain amount of restrained pleasure, the questioner anticipating the complaint-fest that is about to ensue. What people in England don't seem to realize is that the weather is not perfect everywhere in America. I lived for many years in the Pacific Northwest where it rains all the time. I lived in Iowa where the winters are unbearably cold, and in Salt Lake City where the summers are unbearably hot.

So in an effort to fight the rampant English pessimism, I want to talk about how beautiful it is in England in October. The temperatures have been extremely mild. I haven’t really needed a coat at all. We have had gentle rain on and off, enough to keep things crisp, clean, and green. The smell of smoke from fireplaces occasionally fills the air. The trees are slowly starting to change colour; unlike the trees in Salt Lake City that seem to instantly change colour after having their leaves burned off by the summer sun.

We live in a little country village and although it can be a bit dull at times, it has the distinct advantage of being in the middle of the beautiful English countryside. This is the landscape that inspired much of Tolkien's “Lord of the Rings”. I just finished reading Kenneth Grahame's “Wind in the Willows”. This turned out to be much more than a silly kid's story about a toad driving a car (I had seen the cartoon as a child). It is a beautifully written story, filled with magical little vignettes about the English countryside and the wildlife that inhabits it.

A couple of weekends ago I took a long walk with the dogs to Kingsford Forest Park, which is just a couple of miles from our house. I took the camera along with me and tried to capture some of the beauty that constantly surrounds me here. The pictures are linked to my picture website, so you can see more by clicking on any one of them.