Autumn Signs

I read on another blog that it is now officially autumn here in the UK. The nights are drawing in earlier and the sun comes up later.
The temperature is now around fifteen degrees centigrade during the day and in single figures at night.
The leaves of tree's are starting to change colour and drop. Hints of red and yellow are appearing in the Horse Chestnuts that I walk past on the way to work.
Conkers are falling to the ground, although I have not seen loads, so whether school children still pick them up to drill a hole in, and thread it on a shoe lace ready to do conker battles I dont know.
The Blackberrys are ripening.The other day I made two Apple and Blackberry pies with fruit from the allotment. I wanted to photograph the beautiful flower of the very spiny Bramble which surrounds the allotment plots. This bee flew into my shot at exactly the right time.
I watched gardeners world, and saw Carol Klein collecting Aconite seeds. I have the dried pods forming in the garden so I must do that....I have already collected some seeds from the Butterfly flowers ready to sow in the spring. Collecting seeds and storing them in envelopes with writing on them is a nice job, and another reminder of Autumn.
Another autumn job will be to go to the plant nurserys and buy some winter bedding plants. I will be planting my spring bulbs soon, then putting the Pansys, Violas, and Wallflowers out above the bulbs.
Gardening makes you learn how the seasons effects the way the garden looks, and how the seasons relate to the life cycle of plants and flowers. There is a beauty to this annual cycle that invigorates us, and makes us smile, no matter how many of them we have seen before.
For me its Blackberrys and Leaves that are the signs of Autumn is arriving.