Autumn's Gold

As soon as the leaves on our Cornus (Dogwood tree) turn red/orange/and yellow, it also signals the start of our local beech tree forest beginning it's coppery autumn journey.

Many of last years leaves still remain crisp and crunchie underfoot. Walking through them conjures up lots of nostalgic childhood memories of times past.

"I was drinking in the surroundings: air so crisp you could snap it with your fingers and greens in every lush shade imaginable offset by autumnal flashes of red and yellow."

Wendy Delsol, Stork 

It is no wonder that these tall, elegant, noble trees are known as "the Queen of trees." 

 "Shall we take the higher path or the low one?" 

Autumn so far has been unseasonably warm. Something that has been very confusing for the plantlife, and for many animals, especially those that hibernate.

Soon we are having a short break in an old country pub. Hoping to take some good walks, enjoy delicious food, and visit interesting places.........................

'Croeso i Gymru'

The Trees are............

............slowly turning golden. 

Because we have had such a very late autumn season I really hadn't given much thought to Christmas, which I now suddenly realise, is just over five weeks away.

Time to hastened to our local wood and enjoy autumn's golden splendour before the trees finally do turn bare. The woodland sits on the side of a high Cotswold escarpment immediately below where we live and overlooks a small hamlet down In the valley. A valley that is thought to have been occupied by a Roman General called Vespasian, who eventually became the 9th Emperor of Rome. He built himself a magnificent villa in the valley with one of the finest mosaics ever discovered north of the Alps - The Orpheus Pavement. Today the mosaic still lies exactly where it was crafted and conceived, hidden away, safe but intact, beneath the local churchyard.

A pathway leads us into our beautiful, predominantly, Beech woodland.

On entering it feels akin to stepping inside a cathedral. The soft grey trunks of the Beech trees soar upwards not unlike stone pillars which then form a delicate archway overhead.

The fallen leaves feel crisp and rustle beneath our feet bestowing a sense of peace and calm as we make our way below the trees. There are now two choices - a high or a low pathway. We opt for the lower.  

As the late afternoon sun falls it lightens up the lower canopy, but it is now time to retrace our steps and make for home.

The shadows lengthen,

and the leaves glow even brighter.

To Woods....

Make haste if you wish to see Bluebells this year; in my area they are already past their peak - far earlier than normal.

However, whilst wandering through the wood, I was lucky enough to spot some prime specimens of Early Purple Orchids, which were much taller, and more elegant than the shorter, stubbly ones, found on our Common.

I make a point of visiting our local bluebell wood every year as I recall the words that A E Housman wrote in A Shropshire Lad, in his case regarding seeing the Cherry blossom;

******

Now, of my threescore years and ten,

Twenty will not come again,

And take from seventy springs a score, 

It only leaves me fifty more.

*****
Unlike Housman I do not have fifty more, so every year is a bonus.

Post for Lorrie

Lorrie lives on Vancouver Island, Canada, and whilst staying in the Cotswolds one summer she visited Frith Wood which sits on a high ridge between two of our local valleys. On my previous Autumn post showing a different woodland, Lorrie commented 
'seeing the path through the woods makes me think of Frith Wood where we walked several years ago, and I imagine it looks very similar to your photos now'.

Last Sunday it was H's birthday so before having a special family lunch we headed out early to walk the pathway that Lorrie too must have trod during her visit.

Frith Wood is an ancient woodland that spans the ridge between Painswick, known as 'Queen of the Cotswolds', and Laurie Lee's Slad Valley. Until 1801 this ridgeway path through the wood was the main route from Cheltenham heading south. It was an old drovers road where livestock such as cattle, sheep and even geese were driven along to market.

The soaring 70ft beech trees were brought over as seed from Belgian at the same time as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close. These central European trees grow tall and straight in comparison to our more gnarled native beeches.

They would have been a familiar sight to writer, Laurie Lee, who wandered this self-same pathway as man and boy.

"If ever I saw blessing in the air
I see it now in this still early day
Where lemon-green the vaporous morning drips
Wet sunlight on the powder of my eye" 

    Laurie Lee   

   

Spring catkins and buds are showing already,

but the fluffy remains of Rosebay Willowherb linger,

a forest floor sparkling with tiny jewels,

along with a potent splash of orange from the Iris foetidissima berries 

In his book, Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee immortalised these beech woods, deep valleys, flower strewn summer meadows, and the village characters who dwelt in Slad - now they are forever a part of our English literary landscape.

Shades of Red

October has turned our garden hydrangeas from their pale summery pink into a glorious shade of cerise. 

Normally they turn green with just a hint of cerise.

A myriad of coloured leaves are showing themselves off on the Maple trees

Leaves as rich in colour as red hot chillies

In October we have enjoyed a veritable feast of scarlet sunrises and sunsets.

A walk in our local beech wood reveals, that in the main, the trees are still hanging on to their summer greens. Two or three weeks more and they should be showing autumn shades of amber and gold.

Just a hint of what is still to come can be seen.

Amber Glow

 Late autumn colour is still plentiful here, especially from the many large Beech Trees.

Walking through our neighbourhood Beech wood in the bright autumn sunlight is both rewarding and uplifting

The high or the low path?