I have done ‘leaf-peeping’ in the Adirondack’s a couple of times – and it is fantastic. But this year, I only have to go outside my front door to see some absolutely amazing colours and scenery.

I understand that it is a combination of rain, sun and temperature that helps to make the collars glowing. The rest of Europe has seen terribly high temperatures, fire and drought, but here in Norway the summer has been as I remember them from long ago – comfortable temperatures with just the right amount of rain (at night) and of course sun. This I believe gives us the colours we are seeing now.

I don’t think the beautiful coloured leaves will last too long though. I have done all I need to do to prepare for winter in the garden, protected some of the plants from foraging deer, weeded there it is beneficial to do so and filled the freezer with berries to last the long winter months. I even grew some puy lentils and shelled them ready to go into our Christmas meal. There aren’t too many, but it was fun to do.

Today we had snow flurries, not the first as there was also some earlier in the week; tomorrow’s forecast is for quite a bit of snow but I think the ground is just a little too warm for it to remain. The tyres are changed on the car ready to welcome the cold and ice. Inside we are warm and cosy with our heat pump and log fires in the evening.

As far as painting is concerned I have been trying out different papers to use with colour pencil. Normally I use my old stock of Fabriano 5 or Fabriano artistico, but I fancied trying it on colour paper. Unfortunately there does not seem to be the same choices here as I am used to, so I will make do with the few I have for the moment. I will just see if it is worth pursuing.

The last time I exhibited in Norway was 1990 in Stavanger when I exhibited on my own. At that time I was just painting birds and borrowed ‘skins’ from the Stavanger museum collection. It wasn’t until after I moved to the UK in 1996 that I started painting plants – and then not until about 2004. The garden was obviously the trigger.

Botanical art is not a big draw in Norway – I don’t know why! There are so many fantastic plants, even up at the North Cape in between the slate. Some of these plants may be very tiny, but they survive and are colourful – if you have eyes to see.

The series of plants I painted for my last RHS exhibit were all found in the Norwegian mountains and Norwegians love these species. Perhaps with time people might be interested in what I do and want to draw or paint themselves. Hopefully I will be able to help in that process.

The exhibition I have been asked to participate in is at the local Horten Art Society. Apparently several local artists will be taking part, therefore I am glad that I was asked to be one of them. I have no idea which pictures I will be exhibiting, so watch this space. I don’t know whether to just have plant portraits, or whether to include work typical of me with details and dissections. I think I will just have to feel my way around this.

By the way, for anyone living in the vicinity of Horten, Norway, the exhibition is at the Kihlegalleriet, Falkensteinsveien. 29, 3189 Horten. It starts Saturday 11 November, running until 3 December. but only open at the weekends.

In the meantime we have a huge number of birds using our feeders, including Hawfinches, Woodpeckers and Bramblings. They are a wonderful and varied sight.