After a bright but overcast morning, the clouds have lifted. Blue sky! It’s against the law to stay indoors on afternoons like this. Just for a change, I’ll leave the car at home, and head for Willey (rhymes with ‘silly’), via Darley (rhymes with ‘rarely’). I’ll return past Deancorner, which sounds (a) like it should and (b) like war has broken out. It’s the shoot, and it’s very noisy (both guns and beaters). I’ll take that feather out of my cap (metaphorically, but we don’t want any mistakes) and scuttle away quickly!

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An hour or so along Shirlett Lane. No sunshine, but no rain either, and a steady breeze – plenty of fresh air! The autumn colours are great, but they’re not going to last much longer – most of them are on the ground.

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The land rises gently from the river so that whenever there’s a view to the north-east, the Wrekin is prominent. As we walk from Cound Guildhall on this fine afternoon, it’s worthy of attention…

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Should have been ‘November Morning’… We weren’t very quick getting away – until we saw the sunshine and the forecast for rain later. The season has moved on again – the trees are becoming rather sparsely foliated, and the autumnal fruits are either gone or well past their best – but it’s pleasant out, despite a few spots of rain. We’ll be ready for lunch when we get home

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The season continues! The leaves are falling steadily now – soon the trees will be bare, and we’ll be well on the way to winter. There will still be plenty of fungi, I imagine, though not the ones we’ve met today – they’ll be long gone! Their above-ground lives are mostly short. The colours of the leaves and the variety of toadstools have certainly brightened up this cold afternoon in Comer Woods

Comer Woods NT

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It’s cold, too. The clocks have gone back to GMT (or winter time, in effect) – is it anything to do with that? It’s a good morning to be out though, whatever time it really is, especially as rain is likely later. Plenty of seasonal colour, and some splendid toadstools – an enjoyable little outing.

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… to familiar territory. Familiar it may be, but it’s different every time. This morning, the lanes around Willey are decorated with autumn colours, and there’s a very fine crop of toadstools half-way along Britons Lane, well-hidden in the undergrowth…

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Perhaps Chestnut Coppice should be renamed Toadstool Wood? There are certainly lots of chestnuts – we left with our pockets full – but there’s also a fine crop of all kinds of fungi. Mushrooms? Toadstools? I’m no judge, I just enjoy finding them, in all their different shapes and sizes, ranging from single isolated specimens to large family groups. And I’d much rather leave them for everyone else to enjoy.
The fallen chestnuts are in a different category. We’ll roast them and enjoy eating them – and rest assured, there are plenty left for the squirrels and other nibblers of nuts…

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There ought to be! There’s colour on the way there – in the haws, sloes and bright pink mallow. Less to catch the eye in Red Lane itself, apart from the blue of the sky on this pleasant afternoon

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Who needs sunshine? We all do, of course, but even on a dull afternoon (the sun’s trying to break through) the season provides rich colours in the lanes and hedgerows around Willey

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