Village Country Diary continued from previous page


gold too. Fungi can be colourful, ranging from silvery puffballs to the golden wax-caps. The first native trees to start changing colour are the horse chestnut, hazel and ash, though some non-native ones turn even earlier. At the start of September our native trees are usually still green. They will turn soon, though, and we will see their colours later in the month. Oaks, though the leaves are still green, carry golden- brown acorns and also oak-apples, a growth caused by the gall wasp. Hazels have golden-brown nuts among their golden


leaves, though the squirrels will probably have had the nuts already. Horse chestnuts go earthy brown, and of course have conkers. Ash especially changes colour to gold very suddenly, losing its leaves soon afterwards. So look out for the ash going gold, and don’t blink, or you’ll miss it!


Here’s a poem I wrote last September: Oak apples Ash Autumn ritual


A quiet autumn ritual. I dismantle The tomatoes and hang them up to ripen Filling the porch with their scent I bring the garden furniture indoors And move the pots of plants nearer the house I pick more damsons and search the cupboard For gin, which there never is. I collect another Bowl full of fallen apples from the grass As geese wheel and circle, going nowhere. Everything is green still, but just waiting For the chill at night which sits up on the hill In the harvest moon, and will come down.


Orange balsam


Cobweb 48 The Village September 2017


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