When The Leaves Turn Red, Summer Is Over

I walk past this tree everyday and when the leaves are red, it's a sign that a dreadful time of the year is coming. There's no more denying it, summer is truly over. 

Say goodbye to waking sunlight, outdoor life after work, that titillating feeling of warm air on skin. It's time for constrictive coats, clunky boots, frozen cheeks and vitamin D tablets. 

Woe will I be, no more prancing along sand and sea!

Now the trees are naked, the pavements are leafy and the chestnuts are (presumably) stolen by the squirrels. And no matter how early I try to finish work, it's dark by the time I'm home.

But I had a nice surprise this morning. We have mounds of wild mushrooms. They must have sprung up overnight! So beautiful.

Did elves plant spores in our garden while we were sleeping?

A little comfort food as the weather hits chill point. I had a craving for oysters and went to the Waitrose steak and oyster bar for a lunchtime fix. Now I want moarrrrrrr!!!!

Dublin Family Weekend

The next event for Super September was a weekend in Dublin, where my sister and spent most of her holiday. I flew after work on Friday night and after taking two wrong trains to London City Airport, I was panicking when I arrived 20 minutes before departure.

London City Airport is my favourite for the good reason that I still made the flight with 5 minutes to spare. And that includes being stopped in security for liquids in my bag. I flew with Swiss and my fellow passengers were all  banker-types from Dublin, working in London.

I was welcomed by my brother in law's Irish family with four cute grandkids, cousins of Lillee. There were Irish, Australian and French accents in the house.

Dublin that weekend was downright cold. I'm talking so cold the central heating was on. It was also raining on Saturday when we went hiking at Sugarloaf mountain.

There was a scramble at the peak however the family whippet seemingly bounced it's way up!

 You could see as far as, well...the sea and the fields like a green patchwork quilt.

Lisa wanting a trophy photo.

At the top chilled to the bone and blasted by the wind.

What summer???

After that hike, had lunch at an ye olde pub nearby. The thing which really warmed me up was a glass of hot port. It was sweet and aromatic like mulled wine. Delicious!

There was a dinner later in the evening at an apparently fancy Indian restaurant. Getting dressed up for an Indian meal struck me as odd however when we got there, it was an upmarket French and Indian fusion place called Ananda. Not your usual cheap Indian joint! The meals were exquisite.

The next day we had a lavish Irish fry up breakfast. The bacon and soda bread was the tastiest I've ever had. We then went to Malahide, a portside town north of Dublin. 

I visited there on a previous trip to Dublin years ago. This time we went to the Malahide Castle for lunch. The food was delicious, of course I had a steak and Guinness pie. I loaded up on soda bread too. The fragrant just-baked kind is what dreams are made of!

After a stroll by the sea, it was time to return to London. 

What a lovely getaway with my family. It was like having a home away from home.