More in Hope…….than despair!

The past few days have been very very wet and at times windy.  Perhaps it just feels particularly miserable after the great summer weather we have been enjoying until last week.

Leaves are being stripped from many of the trees in our woodland before they have had chance to change to their autumnal hues….so both in the hope that once the sun returns we will still be able to enjoy that autumn glow, and also to cheer us up during such a dull grey spell, here is an image from this time last year…..a reminder of what we could and hopefully will get very soon…..

Red-October

Image taken at Westonbirt Arboretum, Gloucestershire

A word of warning……On this mornings walk I met an old ‘Countryman’ I have known for a good number of years. He is a man of the outdoors and over the years has shunned official forecasts, relying on his own observations to which he adds just a little ‘folklore’.  To date he has usually shown a incredible knack of getting it right. 

His comment today was that the leaves have suffered this year with lack of moisture, too many have dried on the branch yet still retained much of their colour and can only, for the most part,  fall and decay on the floor…no golden glow this year!   I hope for once he is mistaken.

 

22nd October

© David Oakes 2013