“Reasons to be joyful- one…two…”
My lovely friend Sherri gave me my six words this week. I was still busy thinking along the ‘Joy is‘ lines when she left me this comment- ‘I now have Ian Drury’s famous words ringing through my mind ‘Reasons to be cheerful, one, two, three…’ ‘ Sherri always manages to make you feel good, even when she’s not feeling great herself. And I love the song!
The joy continued as I walked down the road. When did I last see so much colour, still in the trees at the end of November? It really is beautiful. How can it fail to lift the spirits?
Sunshine after the rain
Beautiful, isn’t it?
Even the ones lying in puddles are pretty!
And then you have lovely mopheads of hydrangea
During the week, I provided huge novelty value for a gentleman walking his dog in our local cemetery. I wasn’t visiting a grave, but passing through on my way into town. This old cemetery has a huge swathe of trees and I deemed it a fine opportunity to test out the camera function on my new smartphone. My face must have been a picture as I repeatedly produced ‘selfies’ of me scowling into the phone, totally incapable of switching to landscape mode, or whatever it’s called!
Eventually I ‘cracked it’, but the dog was not amused. He and his master had by then completed several circuits of the cemetery, each time the dog having a little snarl at my heels. I must have looked like a grave robber! I smiled apologetically at his owner, waving the ‘camera’. He then ventured near enough to point out a nice wood sculpture, just in case I’d missed it. When I’ve sorted out processing, I might be able to share some of the photos with you, but that’s definitely for another week! Meantime, let’s enjoy a Festival of leaves. It’s the last week for entries.
More joy when I bumped into a friend that I haven’t seen for the longest time. Following radical back surgery, he was looking great! One last little treat- I bought myself a bunch of tiny rosebuds for just £2. They’re beaming away at me from the hearth- red, lemon and peach. So- let’s have it! What brings you joy?
In all of this, I have to spare a thought for our American friends, fighting freezing temperatures and snow. In parts of Australia they have the opposite problem, sweltering heat! All in all, it’s not looking too bad to be here in England right now. If you can find time, don’t forget to say hello to Cate at Show My Face. Without her, what would I do with my Six word Saturday?
restlessjo 
Your autumn leaves are really pretty Jo! You found some great scenes and your rosebuds must be lovely too… 🙂
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Thanks, Meg! Reasons to be cheerful, one, two…. 🙂
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You treated yourself nicely, with a good phone and nice rosebuds 🙂 I am sure there will be photos of them soon 😉 When I feel cold I will remember our friends in the USA – dreadful.
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And now a glass of red, Paula 🙂 Living well! 🙂 Take care of yourself, love. Pass those germs on to the bad bosses!
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😀 they are so bad that they are indestructible…
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I find it amazing how walking with a camera opens your eyes to so many things you normally don’t think about. Fall is my favorite time of year. Love your photos Jo!
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Thanks, Tonya! Bet you’re in the holiday spirit 🙂 All is peaceful here.
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So lovely! Fall is my favourite but it looks more like winter here these days. I too am enjoying the convenience of the cell camera but not for selfies!
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I’m amazed at how it’s lingered this year. Today was very dismal but after lunch the sun peeped out and I have a riot of ruby pink in the smoke bush in front of my window. 🙂
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I’m loving seeing the glorious colours of Autumn Jo. I’ve been lucky to have the past 2 autumns in parts of Australia (house sitting) that experience the joy of the leaves turning to all the radiant colours of autumn. Prior to that I had 13 years with no autumnal joy as we don’t get that magic change of colour here on the Goldcoast.
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I love variety, Pauline. In the Algarve, Autumn is much gentler but it’s still there, with its mellow yellows. I’ve never lived anywhere without an Autumn season and I think I’d find it strange. 🙂
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Yes it took me a long time to get used to no autumn colours and having Christmas in the heat of summer… I still find it hard to get into the spirit of the season in this heat.
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It’s always a pleasure and joy to stop by your blog, your positive upbeat nature is so refreshing!
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Nobody would come back if I grumped all the time, Karen (but I do get to kick the fictitious cat now and again) 🙂
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I have not seen autumn leaves this beautiful! The hydrangea is too beautiful. It’s so uplifting to see this colorful post when it has been gray and raining all day long…
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It was a slow start, Amy, but the colour has lasted and lasted 🙂 Mostly now it’s on the ground 😦
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A lovely farewell to autumn, and a thoroughly joyful post! I’m looking forward to your phonography (is that what it’s called?) You’ll be my iPhone mentor. My camera teacher actually runs a workshop on phone photography … and macro. But I’m leaving town.
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No- you’d better adopt Sue (Slaught) as your mentor, Meg. My son arrived home tonight and left me in no uncertainty about my skills with the phone 🙂 And he never even got as far as photos! Have fun on the travels!
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We have done well weather wise this year but it is sad to hear of the extreme weather conditions in America. It’s lovely to see all the autumnal shades in your pictures 😉
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Extreme weather seems to be becoming more and more the norm, doesn’t it? I wonder to what extent we have caused it or whether it’s just the earth’s natural cycle.
Most of the leaves seemed to be on the ground today 😦
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Sadly yes extreme weather conditions are becoming the norm. I don’t know for sure if we have caused but I tend to think we have. Hopefully it’s not to late to do something about it. 😉
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excellent post! Have a lovely week!
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Thanks a lot, Kathe! You too 🙂
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I drove down a beautiful country road this morning, like yours, the colours were perfection 🙂
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I was almost counting the moments this morning, Gilly. It was rather dreary this morning as I walked through the park and most of the ‘gold’ was on the floor. 😦
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Such gorgeous autumn colours, Jo, and I love the Hydrangea ‘mophead’. I so agree with you about Sherri. She’s such a honey. 🙂
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She really is, Ad. 🙂 Now you have the rest of the story about the man in the cemetery. 🙂
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Yes I have. I know the frustration of getting my iPhone camera facing towards me instead of on what I want to photograph. Apart from anything else, those selfies are über scary. 😯
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I sympathise with your problems using your phone camera! I have worked out how to avoid taking lots of selfies, but sometimes I seem to take video rather than still pictures – it is most annoying. Grrrr!
The leaf photos are lovely and the ones at the top are very similar to the ones I have in my front garden. 🙂
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That’s so good to know, Elaine. I thought it was only me that was a ‘numpty’ 🙂 I expect it would help if I read the instruction manual!
Thank you! 🙂 What a nice outlook that must be!
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You are right, it is a beautiful outlook. The colours are stunning and I am enjoying them while they hang on in there!
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You always have a positive post Jo, thank you for sharing your joys with us! Have a joyful weekend!
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I like to bring smiles if I can, Indah. 🙂 There’s enough misery in the world. Thanks a lot- you too!
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Gorgeous Jo! Loving your autumn entry 🙂
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Thanks, Amanda 🙂 The colour has been fabulous this year. I’ll be sad to see it go.
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Jo I loved the vision of your practicing selfies in the cemetery no less. I’m sure the gentleman was pointing out something that he thought you should take a photo of. I am terrible at selfies because unless i hold my head just right I seem to have all these wrinkles on my neck. I can’t imagine how they got there. 🙂
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I was trying NOT to take selfies, Sue! (I hate those wrinkles somebody put there when I wasn’t looking, too) When I opened up the camera I had the vista of lemony trees. Not being one for reading instruction manuals, I pressed something and ended up with me front and centre in the image. Try as I might I couldn’t get rid of the scowling woman! (must be where the wrinkles came from 🙂 ) Eventually I found my way back to the tree images, but it took some time! I may even work out how to process them one day. I just have to live long enough. 😦
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Oh I see! Yes I recall my first days with the iPhone. Good thing we can just laugh at ourselves. As far as processing do you mean for Instagram? I’m happy to help if you want. 🙂
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Yes, I do mean for Instagram, Sue, but it’s more that I haven’t read up on how to do it yet. One step at a time 🙂 I keep hearing it’s very easy, but these folk have never met me! Thanks for the kind offer. If I get stuck I’ll give you a shout.
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As you say, our ground has been covered in snow. But, as my daughter pointed out, we still have leaves falling from the trees 🙂
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There’s always a bright side, isn’t there, Colline? 🙂
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It’s been a gloriously long autumn Jo….I was certain all the colours would be gone when we got back in mid Nov….but it just keeps giving!
Love the image of you and the snarling dog in the graveyard…..
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You’re home then, Seonaid? Lots of memories to keep you warm! 🙂
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Yes, back to the short dark days….shrinking towards Winter 🙂
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Even though the leaves are long gone, there is beauty in the snow.
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I don’t want to think about that just yet, Judy! I’m such a Summer person 🙂
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Just wonderful Jo, thank you so much for sharing these beautiful leaves for the last week of the festival. I enjoyed it so much!!! xx
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I probably should have just selected one photo to take part, Verena, but I thought it worked as a ‘grand finale’. Glad you liked it 🙂
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No the collection is wonderful, a beautiful ‘finale’ 😀
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