late summer wandering...

This feels as though it has been a very short summer. But, undeniably, the signs that we are reaching the last summer days are there...

Early morning spiders' webs...

Shiny black elderberries in the hedgerows...

Mossy tree stumps and crinkly brown leaves...

I took a Sunday walk through the villages and fields near where I grew up - there was a faint sound of singing as I passed one church...

The path leads down through dappled sunlight...

...and across harvested fields, with dry paths...

...and that strange crackling, popping sound that the stubble fields make in warm sunshine (you'll have to use some imagination here!)...

Looking back to the church, just peeping over the trees...

...and down across grassy fields...

...past another little church almost hidden from view...

Grasses and seed heads waving gently in the breeze...

...beginnings of autumn leaf colour...

Pretty white flowers (some kind of hydrangea???)

I took a bit of a detour to what I remembered being a wildlife area...

...passed blackberries beginning to ripen...

...only to realise that the nature reserve the other side of the railway line has an entrance fee now!

So, change of plan, took the somewhat underused path alongside the railway. I feel I've seen hardly any butterflies this year and even this pretty buddleia had none...

This path was something of a challenge, overgrown with nettles and brambles...

It was at this point, I was slightly regretting my choice of footwear!

However, I persevered and not too many scratches and stings later came out through some woods where there were several types of fungus - mushroom? toadstool? I'm never quite sure.

Along the edge of another field of golden wheat waiting to be harvested...

and past ripening apples...

and vivid rowan berries...

I couldn't face the thought of heading back to my house mid afternoon - even on a sunny day it's always a bit cold and dark - so drove to a little broad nearby. A short walk takes you past the river full of holiday boats (always remind me of boat cleaning as a teenager...probably my least favourite job ever!)

I'm always slightly surprised by just how straight the drainage dykes across the marshes are...

No nettles here, just an easy boarded path through the trees...

I thought this little boat looked rather romantically abandoned...

A bird hide looks out over a pretty little broad, so quiet and peaceful with the sun sparkling on the water...

and this seemed the perfect spot to eat my late picnic...

I have to confess to feeling slightly depressed that the year is rushing by and the temperature is definitely dropping, so it was lovely to absorb just a little September sunshine. Feel it will be winter before we know it.

I keep having to remind myself of the good things in every day, just hoping we don't have too many grey days ahead!

Sx