The clouds cleared and for a little over an hour, the sun shone brightly – perfectly timed for our walk across the fields to the east of Linley Green. The route (a public footpath, but there isn’t really a path as such) follows the woodland’s edge until it reaches the top of the steep slopes above the Severn. Here, we’ll head back towards Linley Brook and make our way round to Willey and back up Scots Lane to the car. It’s great to be out on an afternoon like this!

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A pleasantly calm afternoon in quiet contryside – across the Fiery Fields to Lodge Lane, where there are still plenty of leaves on the trees, then over the road to Benthall Lane. At the hall, we’ll take to the fields again and head for home.

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Don’t they sound dull! Lazy estate agents perhaps? Comer woods are anything but dull today – the sun is shining, backlighting the gold of the leaves, and while it’s shining, we’ll escape from the woods into the bright daylight near the farms at Mose. Re-entering the woodland takes us past the pools (Wall, Seggy and Brim – they’re in advertising, I’d say…), where the beeches – and toadstools – are at their best.

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A walk from the NT car park in Much Wenlock – up the lane, back along the Edge as far as Stokes’s Barn, across the main road, through the (muddy!) woods, down through The Sytche, across the back of the school, through the Linden Fields and up the High Street. Very pleasant too, apart from the interminably grey skies…

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It’s murky too – there’s not much light, but at least it’s dry. We’re walking from Benthall Hall, via Posenhall and Wyke to Benthall Edge. Just about everything in sight is on the warm side of the spectrum, from the rich browns of the toadstools to the gold of the leaves. Soon they’ll all be gone and we’ll be into winter.

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Walking from Corve Dale to Hope Dale, from Hungerford to Topley and back – some familiar ground and some new. It’s dry but gloomy – the sun’s trying to break through in the distance, but never quite succeeding here – we’re in the wrong place. The weather may be dull but the seasonal shades are eye-catching.

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…beside the Severn again. We walked this way in late September (see
Colemore Green and Astley Abbotts), when there was “plenty of increasingly-autumnal colour”. The season has moved on – most of the colour we enjoyed then has fallen to the ground, but there’s still no shortage of autumn shades in this quiet corner of Shropshire.

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Along Ned’s Lane, pale particles are sifting down through the trees. I should say  from the trees… Larch needles, doing what they do in autumn, covering the path with a snow-like coating. Elsewhere, there are still plenty of toadstools, though most of the ‘Flying Erics’ are well past their best, and the puffballs have puffed!

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