Autumn’s great!

The last month or so of summer can be drab – tired greens in the trees and few flowers. Now, half-way through September, the seasonal shades are developing rapidly. It’s much wetter (we needed it) and generally cooler, though when we set out this afternoon, after the rain had almost cleared, it felt warm. The recent wet weather, as well as supplying much-needed moisture to the forests, fields and rivers, has encouraged the fungi. They’re there all the time, of course, unseen in the earth and rotting wood, but now making themselves visible (though not overly obvious). I’ve no idea what most of them are, but it’s fun to find all these strange shapes and forms in the Shirlett verges and woodland fringes.