Autumn Wood
May 2003: Suddenly the trees have filled with bright green leaves in the first flush of youth. The deer now come up to the house to graze on the young hedge leaves, and today, a fox joined them. What with the squirrels, rabbits and birds, the garden is getting crowded.
April: The deer are seen everyday. Bluebells have now bloomed and the leaves are begining to appear on the beech trees. It has been very dry and this will undoubtedly affect the flowering. The apple trees have blossom. and don't seem to have been badly affected by my drastic pruning.The wild garlic has appeared.
March 2003: March has brought Spring. The first butterfly I saw on 15 March. The deer have returned with a vengance. In early March Satoko saw 5 in the wood. On a daily basis we see at least two.Daffodils are in full bloom; primroses and violets are out and bluebells are pushing through.Bees are also emerging. A pheasant has taken to grazing on the drive, the rabbits are more numerous after a winter lull
February 2003: We have put up a bird log. Thus far our visitors include: Great Tit, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Jay, Blackbird, quarreling Robins, Magpies, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Sparrow and Crow. Not forgetting the squirrels who can sometimes number five.The fox has burrowed on the paddock.
January 2003: I thought I spotted a small deer in the distance. Not sure. Certainly our old friends have gone. The buzzard has come back. The squirrels are still here - though I found a dead one the other day. It looked as if it had just keeled over and died. A fox was seen chasing rabbits and it has also been trying to dig a hole in the orchard.
December 2002: The leaves have now all fallen leaving denuded branches twisting in the cold. For the first time I saw a fox running through the wood, no doubt hunting rabbits. There is now definitely only one deer out of the orginal four. I see her from time to time. The squirrels though are as rampant as ever and the pigeons love picking food among the leaves. Some of the stone wall is begining to crumble and will need renewing. The Forestry Commission have sent a cheque for a hundred pounds, part of a grant for the wood.
November 2002: Suddenly, the wood has turned into a pot of molten gold and copper. It's a pain to have to sweep the leaves off the drive but they too add to the affect. Satoko said she has seen one of the deer.
After the high winds, a couple of trees have blown over. I'm fascinated by touching the top-most branches that once were out-of-reach tens of feet above the ground.
I have severely trimmed the apple trees, which had been allowed to grow unchecked.
October 2002: The apples ripened in the orchard. Recently, I haven't seen the deer. The squirrels are constantly checking the nuts they have stored in holes, so that the grass now looks if tens of little grenades have exploded.
The leaves are beginning to fall and coming down the drive is more hazardous every day.
The rabbits are more numerous and seen more frequently.
September 2002: Life in the countryside is taken at a slow pace. Nothing much happens. The squirrels dig up the parsley and eat the coriander now that they have finished the hazel nuts. This is annoying. It is said that truffles grow around here (they like beech woods) and that squirrels are excellent at searching them out. How do you train them? We will look to see where they naturally dig up the ground.
In early September the leaves are already changing colour to gold.
August: The deer are seen less often, at least out in the open, although when I walk around I normally always glimpse the young male lurking somewhere. He will stop what ever he is doing, look at me cautiously but won't run away.
The blackberries are out. We eat with creme fraiche...delicious. We also try the elderberries but as they are so small there is hardly any taste. No chance of roasting the hazel nuts as the squirrels have beaten us. It is amazing how many they eat. They are happy to hang from the branches outside our front door and hardly mind if we look at them. They are cheeky and noisy.