September, the rhythm of many lives shifts a gear.
School shoes purchased, always at the last minute, just in case little feet suddenly grow. Crisp shirts and clean socks that never seem to last that way for long. Back to school and a change is in the air.
Will the summer warmth hang on a while, or will autumn come quickly? Will it be a good autumn, a sensual autumn where the leaf canopy changes her clothes slowly, brightly, colourfully? Or perhaps it will be a quick change, with sensible brown brogues de rigueur, this year.
Birds sense the change with some, like terns, warblers and chats beginning their migration. Swallows and swifts feed in a frenzy ready for their long flight.
There’s still time to enjoy nature’s bounty. If you left the elderflowers in May/June you could have elderberries now, not to be eaten raw but stewed, jammed or perhaps fermented, a liquor for later in the year. Blackberries pair with apples, both ripe from now for crumbles and pies. Ice-cream, custard or cream? We really are spoiled!
I am not a forager. Not for eating at any rate but what joy that the fungus flower season is upon us. The fungus are around all year but mostly hidden underground, their mycelium network a wood wide web. The daily dog walks will be punctuated by hunts for these wonders. I am partial to an amethyst, a jewel in the woods and the red and white fly agaric of myth, folklore and fairy tales. You can keep your dead man’s fingers though, they give me the creeps!
Also hidden in the woods for much of the year is the rather shy Jay. Such an exotic looking bird our native birds have distinctive blue wing feather patches but are otherwise a pinky buff colour. The American Jay by comparison, a near cousin wears full blue livery.
You are more likely to see a Jay now as they search for and store acorns. Although clever birds, the RSPB reports that they often forget the location of their acorn stash meaning that an estimated 50% of oak trees in in two new English woodlands were planted by Jays.
Hoorah for Jays!
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