Wet weather, wellies and wildlife

The past couple of weeks have been very busy for us, with our first visitors to the flat last weekend and our first overnight guests this weekend.

We took friends Roy and Tracey to Dorking yesterday afternoon, in the hope of showing them the glories of the Surrey Hills. There was a bit of very light, misty rain around but visibility was still good... until we made the climb up to Ranmore Common and the world transformed dramatically into the setting for a Brontë novel.

Spooky conditions on Ranmore Common, Dorking

So we drove back down into the town and spent a couple of hours ambling around Dorking's lovely gift shops, antiques stores and cafes, before heading to The Wotton Hatch for drinks in front of the open fire, followed by dinner.

Through the week towns all over Britain have held their official switching-on ceremonies for their Christmas lights. It's well and truly dark by 4.30pm each day now, and the streets do look much cheerier with their festive decorations.

Kevin admiring a particularly nice Christmas display in Dorking

I was in London for the day a week or two ago and Covent Garden had just put up its tree and was starting to get out its Christmas finery.

Covent Garden's christmas tree

Covent Garden festive decorations

Today has been very Autumnal indeed - constant rain, dark conditions. That didn't stop us getting out for a lovely stroll - a good opportunity for me to test-drive my new wellies. 

So... just a small amount of rain about. That's a footpath under all that water.

Green!

Sadly I wasn't able to purchase the Hunter wellies that appeared on my last post. I have a full size difference in my left and right feet which can make the purchasing of footwear challenging. Being British made, the Hunter wellingtons only come in full sizes based on English sizing. With size 5 my right toe was hitting the front of the boot. With size 6 my left foot moved about - even with two pairs of socks on. So I had to go with a French brand with the more flexible European sizing - Le Chameau. I'm very happy with their performance.

Testing out the new wellies

Despite being on the fringe of London we are delighted to have regular encounters with wildlife near our flat. In the past 24 hours we've had to slow for foxes crossing the road, enjoyed the antics of our resident population of squirrels, been visited by a beautiful green woodpecker right outside our bedroom window, and last night as we returned from Dorking we had a family of three deer feasting on the windfall crabapples in front of the flat. Seriously cute stuff.

One of our squirrels

Green Woodpecker (Picus Viridis) outside our bedroom

So nothing earth-shattering to report in this post, but I do have an overwhelming sense of relief at not having to suffer the extreme heat that much of Australia is having at the moment. Oh, bliss!

And finally, some of you who are d'un certain âge will recognise the image on my recently purchased cushion, below. I hope it gives you happy memories of a different time.

John Bender Doesn't Want You To Forget - throw cushion for 80s tragics like me
(available from Society6)

Until next time,

- Maree xo