Autumn

We set off for a walk this morning under grey skies into a gently rolling Suffolk countryside which is hunkering down for winter, with the fields largely empty and the leaves turning on the trees. After the recent spate of heavy rain, during which we must have had about 3" in a few days....

 ....the fleets have filled dramatically, even as the reeds turn brown along their edges.

It's been wonderful weather for fungi, their proliferation being another reminder of my frustrating inability to identify even a few of them - I certainly wouldn't be confident enough to eat what I had identified as a mushroom.

Our wanderings took us past familiar places, like this field edge which, back in February - see post here - was heaving with mad but happy March hares chasing each other but which today showed no sign of them. It is no good speculating as to what has happened to them: all we can hope that they moved voluntarily.

Some of the fields are being converted to forestry and most of the saplings are growing well, though we do wonder why they have been planted so close together - the trees here are about 6' apart, the rows 12' apart, which would make for a very dense forest if they all grew to maturity. We did wonder, perhaps a little uncharitably, whether the farmers were paid per tree planted, which might encourage them to squeeze in as many as possible.

They are, however, planting a good variety of native English trees, including spindle, many of which now sport their stunning berries.

It has been another good year for berries, including in our garden, where....

....foreign blackbirds are visiting to steal them.