Leaves

The leaves are falling quickly now. Some trees have lost all theirs, and they're being blown around in some brisk early-winter winds. Where they accumulate on town lawns, the keener gardeners have their leaf blowers out, chasing the leaf litter around until it can be corralled and loaded into the Council's garden waste wheelie bin.

Because it's about half way round one of our more frequent walks, we sit on a big concrete drainage pipe at the edge of this field and admire some magnificent Suffolk oaks which grow in what appears to be an unused meadow. The other day a big hare came lollopping towards us from under this oak, saw us, hesitated, and lollopped back into its protection.

The leaves seem to hang on longer along the hedgerows which, on a bright but breezy day, give enough shelter for....

....the last of the year's dragonflies to emerge to bask on a sunny leaf. This male is one of a dozen common darters spotted last Sunday: we haven't seen any since.

Most of the fields have been ploughed and it seems that, this year, the majority are down to winter wheat. It was planted a few weeks ago, and it's amazing how quickly it has germinated, the bright, spring green-ness of its new leaves in such contrast to the dying leaves of the trees.