Putting the garden to bed

With the arrival of November and Bonfire Night almost upon us, we have turned our thoughts to Autumn and Winter this week.

Celebrating autumn

The hanging baskets have been dismantled and put away, we will replace them with lanterns for evening entertaining, but only put them out when needed.

We also had the first predicted storm of the season last weekend, which didn't turn out to be as bad in our part of the country.  However it did prompt us to put away the garden furniture.

We have also planted a green manure for the first time this year, hoping to put back some of the nutrients into the soil ready for next year's vegetables.

We held our first big Messy Church last Sunday so most of our crafting has been around preparing for that.  We had a great time looking at "Things that go Bump in the night". Rather than ignoring Halloween, which we tend to do as Christians, we looked at the things used to frighten us and what part they have to play in God's world.  We made sparkly spider's webs, night-time pictures, pumpkin masks, moon mobiles and had a messy bat challenge.

The house make-over continued this week as it was half term and we had plenty of time at home.  Andy finished off the lounge and Josh and I gave it all a good clean (although the dust is still settling!!).

This week's Bible verse reminds that as Christians we live in the world and need to live under the rules of the land as well as those given to us by God:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities,

for there is no authority except that which God has established.

The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Romans 13:1 

Our prayer this week as a family is for those who find this time of year frightening, whether it's the trick or treaters or the fireworks, we pray that they may know God's presence.  We also pray that people will be thoughtful of those around them and understand that not everyone finds scaring a fun activity.