Will you join me on a walk through Balbirnie Park in Fife on a lovely autumnal morning? It was November the 8th.

There is a reason for the walk, apart from needing the exercise, the destination is the shop where we buy the Guardian.

It used to be about a seven minute walk for the paper – there and back, but it takes about 50 minutes now that we’ve moved. Well it keeps us fit – allegedly.

The maples are always the best I think, whether they’re bog standard field maples or the more genteel looking Japanese ones.

Although the Balbirnie estate is a very old one some of the trees which give the best autumn colour have been planted fairly recently.

We’ve had quite a lot of rain recently although luckily a lot of it has been overnight. As you can see below, there’s a mini loch flooding part of the park, but nothing to complain about when compared with the inundations that some poor souls in England have had to put up with recently.

We’re now walking past the golf course, not my favourite use for land but I must admit that they’ve planted it well with lovely trees.

It’s not all manicured though, below is part of the rough and we often end up trying to help golfers find their wayward balls – while thinking to ourselves – how on earth did they manage to hit it in this direction?! I’d give up if I was that bad, but apparently golf is quite addictive. I’m so glad I don’t have an addictive nature, apart from the good chocolate of course, but wheesht – that one’s a secret!

We’re on the home stretch now, almost time to get the kettle on and sit down with the paper to read about the crazy things that are going on in this world.

It might just be this walk that is keeping me/us semi sane!

I hope you enjoyed it.