The mornings are dawning bright, crisp, and soaked in dew the last week or so.  I’ve been in my wellies sorting out the hens and walking the dog.  Last Thursday I snapped this photo (sadly on my mobile phone – it was a gorgeous morning and I only wish I’d had my good camera with me!) of our local swifts gathering for their southward migration.  They’ll soon be gone, now, for another year.

The autumn fruit is ripening in the hedges and it won’t be long before we’re picking sloes for this year’s batch of sloe gin.  The blackberries are just about ripening now.  The lambs are big and fat and hard to tell apart from their ewes.  The harvest is nearly in, summer has given almost all her growth and fecundity for another year, and the autumn nights are definitely starting to draw in.

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