As the nights draw in at some of their fastest rates 3 minutes and 53 seconds shorter today in London. We take a moment to pause and share some top tips and ideas for how to make the most of this season. |
As the daylight hours fade in I encourage you to go outside, and enjoy the crisp autumnal mornings, the mist inversions in the valleys, the conkers bejewelling the woodland floor.
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| Have a look if you can see compasses in the autumn colours Tristan Gooley in his wonderful new book How to Read a Tree talks about the compasses you can see as the autumn colours hit, the leaves on top southern side of a tree in an open space will usually die back and fall off first. Go one stage further, as the different species colours turn different shades and at different times can you use this knowledge to draw a map? What can you infer from this map? It may be an ephemeral map, but it will return each year. |
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| Listen to and learn bird song Now is a wonderful time to learn bird song, the riotous spring is well behind us and there are a few hard hitters calling often at this time of year. The blackbirds numbers are starting to swell as they migrate south from more northerly and westerly climates. As the leaves fall you’ll be able to spot them singing from the tops of trees even more clearly.  I have been using the Marlin Bird ID app, which is a wonderful free app that shows a sonograph of the various bird songs and identifies which is singing currently, I find both the identification and also the visual representation incredibly useful and it had really helped me speed up my bird song learning journey. It also has a photo ID section which I have used as well to good effect on nearby ducks. |
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| There is still good foraging to be had As the glut of the early autumn is behind us it can often feel like the foraging for the year is over, but this is not the case. Hog Weed seeds aplenty are available in our meadows, their distinctive umble shaped seed heads stick up well above the tops of the grasses and nettles. The Nettle seeds are still maturing nicely and seem to be in a glut this year at my regular foraging haunts. I am looking forward to a sunny afternoon collecting and drying these for additions to porridge, soups and smoothies throughout the winter months. Greater Plantain seeds were on a bit of a go slow at the start of September, but they are catching up quickly now, I gather these and mix them in with other mixed seeds into soda breads and sprinkle generously over salads.  The warmth at the end of September and still continuing now has prompted a last flush of growth on a lot of the understory plants. The Brambles have all put out a new set of growth, as have many of the other wild tea plants, including the Water Mint, I have been gathering these on my walks and drying them for warming winter brews.  Keep an eye on your local Blackthorn trees, for when the sloes are ripe and also look out for the bursts of colour from the rose hips, these can be spotted a long way away with their distinctive gaudy reds showing up against dark hedgerows. Neither of these are quite ripe where I am currently in the South East, so I am just keeping a watchful eye on them and growing excited for the right time to gather these delights.  |
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| Enjoy the sunshine Before the clocks go back at the end of the month head out and enjoy the sunshine. The sunsets currently have been beautiful with cirrus clouds taking on the glowing yellows and oranges of the sun, make the most of these before they jump so early they are easy to miss. If sunshine and sunsets weren’t enough to get you outside maybe a boost to your health might? Vitamin D deficiency rates increase over winter, help top your levels up by finding as many excuses to get out into the sunshine as you can. |