Summer seems to last forever until all at once it collapses into autumn. The landscape shifts, green to brown, russet red and gold, and then cool and grey. Leaves blanket the ground, sun breaking through the once thick canopy, gold pouring over rubies.
Hedgerows are lit like autumn bonfires, leaves golden now and bursting with berries - a forager's feast. Sloes and rosehips ripe for the picking. Crimson honeysuckle berries best left for the birds, chattering in their flocks overhead.
In parts of the woods, there's an eerie quiet now. The shhh of the drying leaves, as autumn winds whirl through, the solitary song of the robin, singing out to the empty trees.
Dusk brings hazy mauve to the colour palette, the landscape shapeshifting, playing tricks on the eyes. A strange kind of magic in the air.
Campfires spark and embers glow, adding colour back to the darkening sky. As bats swoop overhead, nuts scavenged in shortening days are brought out to roast, the smell of the bonfire carries through the air.
Winter warmer
A month for finding warmth as the darkness of winter encroaches, there's so much to celebrate in the changing season. Bonfire night means jacket potatoes, gently warming in the embers of the fire. Fill them with a good knob of whey butter, plenty of oak smoked cheddar, wrap them up tight in foil and use a stick to tuck them in at the edge of the flames. A proper warming meal under a crisp night sky.
Cosy up, folks.
