• Liquidambar at Dusk

Autumn seems early this year, but blackberrying was already done by this time in 2010 and it hasn’t started properly yet.  Other things are already changing colour – the horse chestnut is bronzing rapidly, the crab apples blushing.  This liquidambar, which I planted just under two years ago, has established itself well and is colouring nicely, and there should be a few more weeks of changing tints and densities.

I strolled out at dusk this evening to take a shot of its current colours.  The pipistrelles were very curious, dive-bombing to see what the unexpected heat source was.  And less than a hundred yards away, one of the local tawny owls was quavering imperiously.  Their calls fill the night air almost constantly at the moment.  They make a change from the cow further afield which has seemed in perpetual pain for the last few months.  Next thing it’ll be the horses, harrumphing in the pasture next door.

Who said the countryside was quiet?