Halloween - 31st October

It has to be said that the spookiest thing at the moment is still the weather!  Today I saw common mallows in bud and flower - they are usually flowers of high summer!

Mallows in flower!

Along side them were real autumn treats like "lords and ladies" the berries of the cuckoo pint!  Strange bedfellows indeed on this evening of "trick or treat"!



Lords and Ladies!



28th October - flying visit!

On a quick walk to the woods today (busy time at the moment, preparing for a weekend class, so making the most of some lovely sunny evening hours) I passed by an area on the outskirts of the wood where some of last summer's sunflowers still retained some of their seeds.  Several finches, including the noisy greenfinch of a few days ago, were arguing over the largest flowers, but a sweet little redpoll had found one low down to the ground and had made it his own!  The seedling must have escaped from a nearby garden, as they are certainly not native ... but this little guy thought they were all the better for that!  Exotic far to fill his tummy and make his tubby for the winter ahead!

"How to I get down there?"

I hate to miss the changes in the wood for even a few days ... but sadly over the weekend they will have to happen without me!

26th October ... still confusing the seasons here and Down Under!

Everyone's still saying it ... this late warm spell and the strange weather earlier in the year really has confused everything.  Nettles, of course, do tend to flower all through the year, given half a chance, but it's incredibly late to see a holly blue butterfly, even from the second flight!

Did you know that the holly blue is sometimes called the Christmas butterfly?  Quaintly, it is because during their two flights, one in the spring and one in the autumn they feed on "Holly and Ivy"!  Which reminds me, going off subject for a moment, of a lovely butterfly project I have just had published in the Australian magazine INSPIRATIONS...  This is the Ulysses butterfly, with he Christmas Bush!  Sorry, I've just realised that I have got back to Christmas again ... promise not to mention it again until December!!

Triangle Wood Aussie style!

25th October - wake up call!!

Today, I realise, it is just exactly two months until Christmas ... no, don't sigh!!  I mention it only because it seems incredible, looking around the wood, that Winter should be so close, it really still feels like late summer.  Even some of the nocturnal residents don't seem to be able to get used to it, despite the shortening days and longer nights.  This little owl was up and about still, at around 8.30 a.m. when I took a friend's dogs for "walkies" this morning!

"Who..ooo...ooo's keeping me awake?"

Next weekend we put the clocks back, so maybe that will suit him better!

22nd October - back to green!

As if to disagree with my comments about everything beginning to turn gold, this little fellow was down in the wood today - a greenfinch!

Busy taking seeds from a dry thistle head, he had better make the most of it, as rain is predicted soon.  Greenfinches are rather aggressive little birds, and this one took a real dislike to a siskin who was also interested in the thistle head.  The siskin looked thoroughly appalled at his language!!

Another Autumnal Day - glorious!

How long can this sunshine last?  One again the wood is bathed in golden light.  The balance between green and gold has finally swung, now, toward the latter, but still in treetops there is a mixture of both.

There are marvellous shapes to be found, too ... this is last summer's teasel flower, now dried out and spiky and turning - you guessed it - gold!  It is a very convenient home for over-wintering ladybirds which find their way down into the depths of the seed head and make a cosy place for themselves to wait out the hard weather.  I never cease to be amazed at nature's ingenuity!

18th October. The wind in the ... treetops!

Beautiful sunny, breezy day... with the autumn leaves swirling around my feet as I walk, and other tiny airborne flotsam and jetsam too!  Birds must be loosing some of their summer plumage, because there are little feathers blowing in the wind, caught in brambles and cobwebs!  They create tiny "dream catchers", reminding me of the ethnic pieces created by the native American peoples... fascinating, I wonder if that is how the idea first came about?

Dream catcher?

There are still a surprising number of wildflowers down in the leaf mould and among the twigs of the woodland floor.  Periwinkles are like twinkling blue eyes winking up at you!