Autumn – a season of colour and variety

The weather earlier this year – wet in winter and cold in spring – has lead to a huge variety of strong autumnal colours, both in the countryside and in our gardens. I believe the colours are more intense this year.
.
I post a few images here to show this. If you have any you would like to share, we’d be delighted to see and post them.
- Asters, always good value as a late-flowering plant
- Liquidamber – so well named
- Virginia creeper covers my walls so well
Most of the fruit and berries are/were food for the birds – still some on the plants.
- Leaves look better than the flavour of these fruits
- Crabapple did very well this year
- Viburnum berries look good all winter as the birds don’t eat them
Then there were the mammals. We had a number of interesting visitors, some came briefly, others are regulars, but not all were welcome.
- Beautifully positioned, thankyou spider
- Young goldfinches, we saw 17 in one go, but they come and go
- This hedgehog was seen scurrying across the gravel yesterday morning
- Mr Mole found his way into my dining room – how? Here he’s in a bucket on his way to some friendly grass
- A cheeky mouse on the bird table, he wasn’t too concerned when I got up close to take this photo, but didn’t stay still at any time
- A rat under the bird table, not the only place he’s visited!
Can’t claim the Red Kite actually visits my garden, but he’s been flying over it ever since he fledged in July.
- This Red Kite juvenile can be seen and heard calling ever since he fledged from his nest on Grafton Road
- A sparrowhawk resting on one of my bird perches, allowed to grow there for the garden birds!
- A whole new meaning to the words: bird feeding station. The view from my office – terrific!
And finally, three of the cream of the village buildings in November weather conditions.
- The Chapel
- The church
- The Cross
By the way, the holly berries at the top of this post are on the holly bush in the churchyard. When I took this image, I found something rather surprising. If you walk up the path past the church towards Church Hill, you will see the bush and berries, which cover this side of the bush, but if you go to the rear of the bush, where it faces north, there are none! If you know why this is, please email me with an answer. Thanks, Pam
Hazel Freeman
Thu 15th Nov 2018 at 5:40 pm
Thank you for sharing these wonderful pictures with us all