With the days getting cooler and the leaves turning red and yellow, it’s time to embrace the change in season with these fun autumn activities.
Go bonkers for conkers
What better way to introduce children to the joys of nature than by going on a conker hunt?
Put on your wellies and go in search of horse chestnut trees in your local park or woods. Around the base, you should find lots of conkers in their spiky outer shells. Rip away the rough exterior and you’ll reveal a glossy, reddish-brown seed.
Once you’ve collected a haul of conkers, you can paint them or create a conker caterpillar (by linking several conkers together with a piece of wool).
Or you could play that age-old game ‘conkers’. To do this, carefully make a hole through the centre of a conker, insert a piece of string and tie a knot. Then whack your conker against your opponent’s. The owner of the conker that lasts the longest is the winner, aka The Conkeror.
Make an autumn wreath
Why wait until Christmas to decorate your front door with a colourful wreath? Instead, make a decorative display of autumnal flowers and foliage that will be the envy of your neighbours.
To get started, gather some autumn leaves and place them under something heavy to flatten them down. Then add hair spray to make the leaves more durable.
Using florist’s wire, attach your leaves to a wreath ring (you can buy them at craft stores or reshape a wire coat hanger). You can also attach dried flowers, conkers or gold ribbon.
Go pumpkin picking
You could easily buy a pumpkin from your local supermarket, but why not have a mini adventure in the countryside and pick your own? Many farms have pumpkin-picking events where you can choose your own giant gourd.
Take a friend or partner and make a day of it. Throw in a walk and a pub lunch, and you have the perfect autumn day out.
When you get home, you can get in early for Halloween and carve your pumpkin into a spooky jack-o-lantern. Use the leftovers to make a delicious sweet treat (pumpkin pie, perhaps?) or savoury meal (we fancy a pumpkin biryani).
