Beech tree and firs, Wapley Hill, October 15th 2008October the fifteenth, almost midway through October and so midway through the season. And I celebrated my forty-fifth birthday last Thursday, a midway point of my forties.
It has been a good autumn for colour. Driving north at the beginning of the week the colours were striking; maples and chestnuts, beeches and birches. Our beech has been losing leaves for a few days now and the garden this morning was a whirl of flying leaves, all perfectly bronze or gold. In reality of course the tree has many colours in it, from yellows and golds through browns to leaves that are still green. A walk on Wapley Hill this morning and there the beeches show up clearly against the evergreen background, so even though they are not as advanced (the ones I saw are on the southern slopes of the hill, I wonder if this make a difference?) as our garden beech they are just as spectacular. A cold still morning, last night's rain dripping off the leaves as we sat for snacks on the hill.
We have also had cool nights and a lot of mists. Perhaps I see the season more because of keeping this journal; it is a means of focussing on what is happening around me. A lot of mushrooms starting to appear and we could smell them - stinkhorns, I think - on the hill this morning.
A memory-day; I raise a glass to absent friends and family.
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