Autumn? Winter....

 It being that time of year, we went north for the Literary Festival at the Roman museum in Maryport.  It was still possible to enjoy walks around the nature reserve, carpeted with leaves.  Indeed, in Essex, many trees are even now still in full leaf, shimmering with colour

 After we had heard Doug Scott, a renowned mountaineer, launching the festival with accounts of huddling in an ice-cave at 24,000 feet,we had some perspective on the rest of the weekend, when the weather took a sudden wintry turn.  In the distance, the Lakeland fells etched with snow.

This is Causey Pike, seen from the road around Bassenthwaite.

 Down on the Solway coast there was an almost eerie calm - but it was still as beautiful as ever.

 On Sunday afternoon, the biographer, Juliet Barker, talked about the Brontes and the importance of their imaginary worlds, with such engagement with her subject.  They were unique, she said, as a coterie of writers, three in the same family.  None of us could think of any other examples, although there are several acting and performing dynasties.  Why should this be, I wonder?

Two pairs of fingerless mittens: the first in the Newfoundland pattern.

And the second made up as I went along.

Both of these will be going off to Knit for Peace, to keep someone warm.