An Autumn Walk

A fine Autumn day is about as good as it gets. Everything thrown into contrast; light and shade, dark green, light green, golds and browns.

It's amazing to think that this is the 1st of November, it really feels like late September. The sky is deep blue and the breeze is gentle. It is the perfect day for a walk - a November walk without a coat! At this time of year it's tempting fate to put off a walk until later on or tomorrow. This could be the last fine day before Spring.

I have plenty of other things to be getting on with today but one of the joys of working from home is being able to stop and go for a walk when the time seems right. It was right this morning and I've just returned from a one-and-a-half hour walk "round the block" with my camera. As many photographers will know, this is the best time of year to be taking photographs, such rich colours illuminated by a sun, low in the sky - a great time to be out of the house.

As some of you will know, I now live in rural Hampshire and we're fortunate enough to live in an area with a dense network of footpaths and bridleways, so there is always a walk to be had.

I used to consider October one of my favourite months (along with May) but in view of the very mild Autumns we've had over the past few years, I may have to revise this to November. Amazingly, many trees are only just beginning to turn. True, the Field Maples are now uniformly golden but the Beech are just at that perfect stage where some leaves are bright green, others are yellow and yet others are golden brown.

One thing I did notice, that I hadn't noticed before is how well the Hazel retains its colour at the end of the year. Most of them were still in full green leaf.

I have always believed, as a landscape architect, photographer and human being, that a larger proportion of the beauty in any landscape is in the detail. A landscape is composed of many hundreds of beautiful and detailed elements and it is the particular composition of these elements that makes a landscape look the way it does and somehow gives it a specific identity. Although I love getting out and seeing big views, there is perhaps more satisfaction in looking carefully at a seed head of Old-man's-beard and noticing that something that, from a distance, appeared to be rather drab, turns out to have a beautifully subtle coloration. The seeds themselves are a pinky-orange - not something that is obvious when you only look at the big picture.

Rosebay willowherb is a plant that has followed me since I was a child. Although considered a weed, it is a fantastic plant. It grew in great profusion on the many bombsites in and around Liverpool (where I grew up) and it now forms impressive stands on road verges near my home. Not only does it have fantastic spikes of deep pink flowers in mid to late summer and an impressive seed head but it also has some of the best Autumn colour - if you look. These leaves are almost on fire with colour. It's the perfect plant for the "wild" garden if you're prepared to keep it in check.

There is no doubt that blogging is infectious and I am just beginning to understand why so many people are drawn to it. There is definitely some therapy involved here and I suspect it may be compulsive.