Molehills

Down to the end of the garden this morning, collecting fallen leaves to admire their autumn colour and searching the wood pile for funghi, when what did I spy?

Molehills dotted about, evidence of our friend who fell from the sky recently, from my point of view this was good as it proved despite his fright and fall he was obviously strong and surviving.

Mike might not feel quite so pleased though when he sees the stretch of green interrupted by small, brown earthen mounds, I can feel a few mountains coming from these molehills.

Mind you, I'm sure moley will not be here very long once the weasel finds his molehills!

Flora and fauna on the way to Cromer.

We are off to Cromer --- a sudden decision.

It is a mild and magical October day, 22degrees, the trees are colouring up nicely, yellows, oranges, fiery reds and golds.

On the right hand side of the M11, above the golden fields I watched a red kite circling, almost immediately a pigeon flew low across the road in front of the car and I realised how very large a red kite must be. I suppose everything is comparative, seeing the pigeons in the garden they always look so large compared to most of our other garden birds, now seeing the pigeon against a higher flying red kite, suddenly I see them as a mid size bird.

The left hand verge is almost barren of plants and looks white and dusty, between the sparse greenery the ground looks like pure chalk. We pass a field of sheep, spread out widely and all laying contentedly down. I wonder if they are ruminating like cows do and are chewing the cud. Do sheep chew the cud, I wonder.

Where the A11/14 separates we took the left hand road toward Norwhich, as we did so we saw two more red kites above the road.

Just past Elvedon we saw some magnificent  beech trees, fully mature and just starting to show their autumn colour. We drove past great banks of trees of all types, most of them changing colour, in a few weeks they will be breathtakingly beautiful.

Passed another field of sheep again all contentedly laying down, not too long after we saw many pigs spread across a muddy field, all with their snouts in the brown earth.

Almost immediately we passed a field of the most delightful, curly tailed, pink and black piglets, seeing them I was reminded of the Enid Blyton stories of a pink pig with a curly tale who flew the children off on adventures.

We saw a kestrel hovering high above the verge, it is the first Kestrel we have seen on this journey.

Next up is a field of black and white cows, sheltering in the shade of trees, it is 24 degrees, and they must be glad of the cool shade on such an unexpectedly warm day.

Two small flocks of rooks, the first eight, the second eleven were flying back and forth and circling above the road as we drove.

Eighteen miles from Cromer we saw another field of cows, these were varying shades of brown and had many pretty calves with them.

In two places during this journey I saw groups of garden flowers flourishing on the roadside verges. The first was a large group of beautiful, showy, red hollyhocks and the second was a smaller group of pale pink lupins.

Autumn happenings

The squirrels have been very busy the last few days collecting acorns from the oak tree opposite and bringing them into the garden for their winter store. They bury them all over the entire garden and despite the fact that squirrels are supposed to bite the growing tip out  before they store them, I don't believe they do as we have so many tiny trees shooting up everywhere each year.

Today the garden has been full of birds all day long, great tits, blue tits, chaffinches, blackbirds, thrushes, robins, and tiny wrens.

As I look out of the window it truly is golden October now. The grass no longer looks green it is covered in a thick layer of fallen autumn leaves, which from a distance look an orangey brown, but up close they are a glorious mix of shades of red, yellow, brown, green and brightest orange.

I love the crunchy sound as I walk through them, and when I scuff my feet and leave tracks behind.

Night roosting birds

Late each afternoon I see two huge skeins of birds flying in a westerly direction, at first I thought they were migrating, but I now think perhaps they are going to a night time roost.

They appear to be the same group every afternoon and always at approximately the same time. I think they are gulls.

Ladybirds

We have been enjoying an exceptionally mild spell of weather for this time of year, the result is a profusion of ladybirds - many hundreds coating the white walls outside.

I seem to remember a few years ago I was at once charmed by the vast numbers of strange ladybirds in the garden, and almost immediately concerned because of the reports of these European insects invading our shores. It was thought that they would over run our natural ladybirds and even eat them, fortunately this doesn't seem to have happened.

We have had very few ladybird sightings in the garden this summer and those we have had have all been our natural ladybirds. However the last few days I have been amazed at the numbers I have seen, they collect on the white walls and windows and are a very mixed bunch with almost as many of our native species as there are foreign - where have they been all summer?

I do feel reassured that perhaps the danger to our native ladybirds is not after all as great as was feared, certainly I have witnessed no aggression between any of them and have not seen any of ours devoured by their cousins - I hope this proves to be the case.

Golden October

Down to the river,again it is so mild, more like a summers day than a late October one.

The horse chestnut trees have dropped their precious load of conkers and are now shedding their brown leaves already twisting and crispy underfoot.I scuffed my way through them and once again felt the same joy that I felt years ago when I did this as a child, none of the guilty feelings that went with it though for either wearing my shoes out or scratching the surface, which I diligently polished every night, ready to look smart for school the next morning. Indeed it fell my lot to polish every ones shoes, my fathers included, but his had to have special treatment as they had for some reason to be polished underneath as well - on that area between the heel and the sole, and they were so big and my hand so small that they were hard to control, but I always made a good job of them.

I never say October without prefixing it in my mind with the word golden, yet this year the leaves seem slow to turn and I am still awaiting the wonderful, breathtaking views that trees will soon give us.

I was surprised at how many wild flowers were still out and at how low the river was for this time of year. I have heard there are otters in the river but as yet have never been lucky enough to see them. Occasionally I do spot a heron or a kingfisher.

Yorkshire in October

Travelling to Yorkshire for the fifth time this year, again to spend time with our little family up there.

We pass almost skeleton trees, their pretty autumn leaves drifting down and littering the fields and roadside verges. In one field we see hundreds of gulls following a tractor, while other nearby fields are brown, newly ploughed and almost bereft of gulls. The richest pickings are obviously where the soil is freshly turned.

Further on fields are already green with new growth and yet still showing the brown stripes from the tractor. The growth is like fine green grass and has an abundance of pretty male pheasants scattered throughout the fields. We pass fields of young brassicas, interestingly not so many pheasants to be seen in these darker green places.

I am surprised to see so many wild flowers in bloom at this time of year; large patches of white ox-eye daisies, long scatterings of bright yellow ragwort and many large clumps of deep mauve geraniums, which are a great favourite of mine.

We made a random stop at a garden gate and bought some runner beans, home grown and freshly picked. We must buy  a marrow to go with them, for the cooked combination of these two is excellent and very moorish. Cooked in  the same pot, but with the runner beans given two or three minutes longer than the marrow, which if it is young I cook with the skin still on. The water, of which there should not be too much, can of course be either used for gravy making or drunk.  If the marrow is young these two veg are also excellent freshly cut up and used in salads.

On the M62 we are passed by a sleek, low, red car with an odd registration number 77935, that is all, no letters. I can't recall seeing such a number before.

I am shocked at the amount of dead creatures I have seen on this journey, mostly pheasants, but also rabbits, squirrels, hedgehogs and of course badgers. Fortunately the fields are still full of pheasants and rabbits on the verges are also plentiful. Interestingly most of the dead pheasants are male. I wonder if this is because they are greater risk takers than females or is it that females are still protecting their young and so stay closer to hedgerows and less open places?

With sixty miles still to go, the trees and hedgerows have many more leaves and are still golden compared to those alongside the road at the beginning of our journey. Although some trees in Yorkshire have lost almost all of their leaves, there are others that remain green. The trees further south had a more distinct autumn colouring, orange, yellow and red.

Near the A4128 junction off the A1, I saw a dead weasel by the central reservation.

It is 17:36pm, the sun is setting and the sky is beautiful. To the right it is dark and stormy looking, then under a sudden line it changes to a block of the brightest orange and further down changes again to a pale turquoise. Ahead the clouds are brightly outlined with gold while underneath the sky has a pretty rosy glow. Hopefully a good sign for tomorrow.

Now at 17:56pm the sun is almost touching the horizon and is an enormous fiery deepest orange ball --- with the sky on either side stretching away, wonderfully red. The undersides of the clouds above and to the sides of the sun are red as is the top of the lower band of cloud.

A beautiful sunset to enjoy as we near our journey's end.

The Mole and His Lucky Escape

It was a beautiful day today, bright sunshine and the bluest of skies with now and again white clouds hurrying across. It was a little cold but the strong winds were invigorating and the air felt fresh.

This afternoon I stood idly by the end kitchen window, watching the clouds passing by and then the washing and trees blowing in the wind.

Suddenly as I watched something caught my eye, it was small, dark and falling from the sky. My gaze quickly shifted and I watched it fall on to the lawn, it lay still and I decided to go and investigate. Even as I was thinking this it moved and I knew whatever it was, by some miracle it was still alive. I couldn't make out what it was but then as it slowly stirred I realised it was a mole, with his sleek, shiny coat glistening in the sunlight. As if realising the danger of being in the open and what a lucky escape he'd had, he quickly dashed across the grass and into the undergrowth.

I was astonished to witness the above and so pleased to have been at the window and staring out just at that moment, and even more pleased to see him alive and his dash to safety. He must have been dropped by a bird of prey.

Basildon Park

Visited Basildon Park today, it is a National Trust property in Berkshire, we were on a guided tour which in retrospect was a mistake. Although it was interesting to be shown round the house, one had to stand still and pay attention while we were being spoken to for fear of others being disturbed. Also the group was too large and the rooms were so crowded one could only see the part where one was hemmed in and immediately the guide stopped talking we were moved on. Indeed we were ushered from room to room too quickly, therefore we heard the history of the house and its owners but were unable to stand and capture the feeling of the room or to even spend time admiring the architecture of the rooms or treasures therein.

We have visited this property before not on a guided tour and going around at our own pace, reading about the rooms from the notes in each room or by talking informally to the stewards in each room, is a much pleasanter and more relaxed way of seeing a property. In future we will go when it is not a guided tour day.

The grounds are enjoyable and the far reaching views across the Berkshire countryside were breathtaking. There are also some really aged and very beautiful trees in the surrounding parkland.