late september afternoon

the last few weeks having been so wet the grass everywhere is positively glowing green, and in the warm afternoon light everything looks vivid and  springlike. Tilda has spent the day outside in the warm air and sun. at last we are having a short period of indian summer.

the rosehips on the dog roses are more decorative than anything else in the garden at the moment. they will provide food for some creatures; when the contents were stored under tarpaulins the  autumn the sheds were rebuilt, I found chewed up rosehips inserted between boxes and under the tarps everywhere.

they are glowing red, taking over from the honeysuckle berries which the bullfinches have been taking for two or three weeks now. I have never seen them before; they are very shy, but perhaps the bad weather which kept us indoors encouraged them to come into the garden. I heard their distinctive flutey calls around the village several times.  it is not so long since they were routinely killed for taking apple blossom; although I don’t remember them in our orchard as a child, my cousin has a distinct memory of her father shooting them out of the bedroom window.

another fantastic crop of apples is ripening. they are not quite ready yet, about two more weeks I think, and then I will be overwhelmed with them.

I am pleased to see the wild carrot back in the corner by the sheds; they self seed and are spreading. a very graceful plant and useful for decoration.

the very last of the poppies – all the rest have been cut down, as I have worked hard to revitalise the grasses by cutting all the yarrow, poppy and knapweed back, and will keep rotor-scything until the growth stops. I want to try to seed cornflowers into the bare patches this autumn.

a lone comma catching the sunshine

he had found a good place to absorb the warmth and stayed while I tried to get a close-up. this camera seems to get confused and took several very blurred photos.

out on the farm the stubbles have an undergrowth of grass and weed – they are not very pretty. we disturbed half grown roe twins in the long grass, they got up and then froze for ten seconds, and the dogs didn’t see them, then as I fished out my camera, of course they started to bolt, Sal rushed after them, Tilda pulled on the lead and all I got was blurry pictures of the grass.their ears were enormous – such pretty creatures. Sal’s rushing is of course very ineffectual, it just incites Tilda to protest.

bright guelder rose berries in the green lane.

the big pasture is bright green and  has no sheep on it – I wonder if they will come back this autumn, there seems a fair bit of feed.