summer sun in October

[Kerry Cobb]

10/10/10 started off in Hertfordshire as a normal Autumn day, cool breeze, grey clouds, pretty non-descript. But the forecast was for unseasonally warm temperatures of 20+ degrees so I made a picnic, put the bikes on the car and carted the family off to Hatfield Forest, a misnomer as it's actually near Stansted Airport, nowhere near Hatfield! As we drove along the M25, the sun burst through the clouds and grey gave way to a beautiful, high, blue sky. There is no better place to be on a clear Autumn day than in a forest, where the colours are golden and bright and the earth seems a warm, wonderful, welcoming place. Some of the trees are reportedly over a 1000 years old, imagine what and who they have seen come and go, the secrets they could tell...we built a wigwam from sticks, jumped across the logs over the stream and lay on tree stumps basking like lizards in the summer (that should be autumn!) sun. We saw a house made of shells, families picnicking by the lake and flying kites and we cycled around the paths, through the trees, across cattle grids and had a fabulous day. Why is that we all smile more when the sun shines?