One day I am waiting for the autumn colours and then we went up to the lake at Coniston to see the birches in their splendour and it was all over. The damp plus the wind and an early frost might be to blame I suppose. The last pear is off the tree (and consumed by the rabbits though I have seen a robin pecking away at it.) The rain is lashing on my study window and it is cold (especially as we froze in bed last night only to find we still has the 1 tog duvet on! No wonder. That is now remedied. Time for bedsocks and a hot water bottle.)
Here and there are some fruit still lingering - sweet chestnut (though this is a cheat as it belongs to Prince Charles and the Duchy of Cornwall and is in Aconbury Wood in Herefordshire).
The flocks of fieldfares and redwings keep coming, most of the berries will be gone soon at this rate.
And there are flowers in the garden (if not the gardener) - rose, masterwort, potentilla, sedum and Kaffir lilies.
The beech hedge is turning and the last of the cherry leaves are fluttering down. I tried to blow them away from the grass and path but immediately a gust of wind undid all the good work. I will wait for calmer times. I should really be bagging up the leaves to make leaf mould. Fill a black bin liner or sack and seal the top. It will slowly rot down and give a rick humus, not a lot of food value but good for the condition of the soil.
I have put this photo of the view across Morecambe Bay from the new window in the extension elsewhere on the internet, the distant hills are the Forest of Bowland, twenty plus miles away.
I had thought the number of feeding birds had fallen but recently they are back (or have just arrived from Europe.) Mainly tits, sparrows and finches with the odd pheasant thrown in.
The rabbits are still munching on the last of the windfall apples.
The sun is out. the shower has stopped, out into the jungle again.
Beech is my very fave winter tree.
ReplyDelete