An Autumn Observation

The days are already getting shorter, and it won’t be long before we feel the first frosts and, no doubt, start to hear melodramatic news of incoming snow.

We crunch and snap our way through the woods, already carpeted with red and orange leaves. Crusty acorn cups and shiny brown conkers are littering the ground, and tree branches are starting to look thin and bare.

Squirrels are everywhere. They’re performing fearless aerial stunts as they leap across the treetops, and we hear them scratching about in the dense holly and shrubs. A few braver ones venture out and run furtively across our path, panicking but not quite hiding.

Around us, we hear the pattering sound of rain.

But it’s not rain. It’s thousands of tiny leaves and seeds, gently dropping to the woodland floor.