For the past month, because of my dad's illness, I haven't seen my own garden in daylight, far less the allotment. Instead we have spent the past five weekends here on Speyside. So I'm more familiar with the progress of autumn in my dad's garden than in my own.
These photos are from mid-October. The warm colours and late blooms are fading now, battered by rain and wind, and by the first frost of the year last night.
We'll see if the holly berries make it through to Christmas. The resident flock of sparrows is very partial to them. Some people net their holly bushes to preserve the berries, but I wouldn't go to those lengths, and certainly not when we're not here all the time to free any birds that might get caught up in the netting.
Dad is now out of hospital, so we may be visiting the allotment this weekend to see how the weeds are faring.
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