It wasn’t just the clocks that receded last weekend but our summer was also replaced by a gloomy kind of autumn. An autumn with few redeeming features or comfort.   No marvellous mist nor autumnal palette to warm the soul.  Just damp, dank chills and rainfall.

Outwardly I’m delighted that the rainwater is replenishing the water tanks but inwardly I’m gutted that the days of it being warmer outside than inside are over. I am resigned to the curtain closing, fire lighting, casserole cooking routines making a return.

Thankfully even when the view out the window is grim.  I can turn on my electronic photograph frame and watch the sunshine scroll through bringing happy memories of fun times and warmer days.  These photographs were taken a few weeks ago on a trip to one of New Zealand’s sunniest spots, Hawkes Bay.  We were visiting Cape Kidnappers, a place of natural beauty with a colony of Gannets and incredible coastline that shows how the earth evolves when nature plays it’s geological high jinks.

I’ll save more on that for a future post but for now here’s a glimpse of the glorious day of late summer at the coast. I’ll leave you to enjoy whilst I go wrestle with the bassets for a warm spot in front of the fire.