Look out of any window now and there is a golden glow.
It’s probably the last week it will be like this.
Over the next couple of days, according to the forecast, the temperature may drop to below zero for the first time this winter. And then, no doubt, the remaining leaves will be gone.
Relocating my work space clutter temporarily to the dining room table I’ve discovered it isn’t very warm in here. Yesterday it was just my feet that were cold. Then last night the numbness extended up to my knees. I’ve been eyeing up the central heating control panel on the far side of the room. So far I’ve resisted. Would Mike really notice do you think if I were to tweak it just a bit?
![Acer 013 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Acer-013-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’
Acer ‘Osakazuki’ did an odd thing this year. Half its leaves turned red while the rest were green and then, for a couple of weeks at least, it seemed to get stuck. Now the green leaves have caught up, only for the first lot to drop off.
![Autumn leaves 009 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Autumn-leaves-009-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
They do offer a striking contrast to the cyclamen leaves below
![Callicarpa bodinieri 'Profusion' 002 Wm[1]](https://i1.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Callicarpa-bodinieri-Profusion-002-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
Callicarpa bodinieri ‘Profusion’
The Callicarpa on the bank has grown to a reasonable size now and its berries are really standing out. Only a matter of time before the birds find them then I guess.
![Autumn leaves 011 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Autumn-leaves-011-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
But it’s the woodland that provides the most spectacular feature this month.
As the ornamental trees, the acers and the cornus, started to drop their leaves, the native beeches and oaks came into their own.
.
Walking out this morning I heard a scuffling in the distance, an animal running away.
It brought to mind another encounter from earlier this summer. One late afternoon, whilst watering in the greenhouse, an unexpected noise pulled me up. Something was in the river. Something splashing. Something big. Feeling mighty brave in the circumstances I crept round the rhododendrons to peer down below. Nothing.
A couple of days later, blow me if the same thing didn’t happen again. AND a couple of days after that.. always about 5.30 p.m. So what could it be?
Another farmyard escapee? A villager out for a walk, taking a short cut down through the river? The Beast of Bodmin Moor?
Now, Bodmin is quite some distance from here but without doubt some kind of creature lurked in the deepest and darkest part of the woodland. And whatever it was I needed to find out. Ideally before it found us.
For several days we leapt into action at the first sound of splashing. For me another dive behind a rhododendron bush (being the original Doctor Who peeping-round-the-sofa kind of girl), with Mike heading on up the drive. And for days we still saw nothing. Infuriating in the extreme. A stake out was planned.
Finally, ‘the beast’ made its mistake. It lingered over a drink from the river just a few seconds too long and Mike caught a glimpse of white tail disappearing betwixt the trees. That bloomin’ rhodo-nibbling, rudbeckia-munching roe deer.
.
![Autumn leaves 012 Wm[1]](https://i2.wp.com/www.rustyduck.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Autumn-leaves-012-Wm1.jpg?resize=1000%2C666&ssl=1)
The river is down in the dip beyond this railing.
The only sounds this morning were of birdsong and the faint whisper of the breeze. As leaves start to fall light can penetrate the canopy for the first time since late Spring. The colours are just superb this year.
Linking up with Christina’s Garden of the Hesperides for Garden Bloggers’ Foliage Day.
Click through (here) to see how Christina and many other gardeners are using foliage this month.
Enjoy your color while it lasts. I’m looking forward to the sunshine that I will have for only 5 short months.
Winter sunshine? Without the leaves? It’s amazing how much lighter it is in the house here in winter. Not just the lack of leaves, but the sun being low enough to shine in through the windows without the obstruction of the overhanging roof. One good thing about winter!
What an idyllic spot. Lovely all year round but special in Autumn with so much colour. I love your Callicarpa and the peerless A. Osakazuki. I’ m so glad that your noisy river drinker didn’ t turn out to be the Beast of Bodmin Moor. I don’ t know though, maybe you could have trained ‘The Beast’ not to eat your Rhodos and rudbeckias. You’ ll never train Bambi.
It’s a good point. Bambi has a mind of her own. Possibly as a result of rumbling her she has not been back recently. I can but hope.
You’re absolutely right – the colours have been superb this year and I do hope you’re right about the frost too. Our Jerusalem artichokes really need it! X
Tomorrow night’s looking frosty. Lots of pots to get into the greenhouse tomorrow. Oh joy.
The trees have taken their time this year to turn completely autumnal in colour, just as if by having a foot in both camps they could keep both summer and autumn going a little bit longer. If that winter chill is on its way I’m sure you could tweak that central heating just a little:)
They have taken their time and been better for it. The mild conditions haven’t been all good though. I discovered today cabbage white butterflies have been active much longer than usual and caterpillars have decimated my Brussels Sprout crop!
We had some lovely fall afternoon light here in the PNW last week during our freeze (the sun seldom comes out here in the winter unless the temps go below freezing). We are now back to rainy overcast weather and dull-as-dishwater light. Your woodland is so pretty, the trees look beautiful and mossy.
It’s the same here in the west of the country, we seem to get all the rain and the greyness. No shortage of moss, ferns even grow directly off tree branches way up in the air.
What an outstanding colour Acer palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ is. Good of it to give you two bites of the cherry so to speak. The woodland is lovely when you begin to see the outline of all the branches as in your images today, and the yellow leaves look like dots of light. thanks for joining in GBFD again Jessica, it is lovely to see so many different foliage posts.
Starting to see the branches makes me look at it with a critical eye. I can see so many that are misplaced. And I can see a man with a chainsaw in my not-too-distant future. But at this time of year, surplus branches or not, it really comes into its own.
Lovely colours and at least the intruder wasn’t the beast of Bodmin.Do you intend to use some sort of wire fencing to protect the garden areas or are you just going to grit your teeth and put up with the damage.
Gritting of teeth for now. To surround the garden with 8 foot high deer fencing (they just jump over anything lower) would be prohibitively expensive for us and not in the least attractive, especially down by the river. If they get braver and come closer to the house we may need to think again.
What a gorgeous view in the top photo. And that Acer. Lots of lovely leaf colour Jessica; it has been a good autumn
It really has. I think I started posting autumn colour pictures back in September, I can’t believe how long it’s lasted this year.
Glorious, well, the leaf colour, not the deer that is prowling around. Can deer prowl?! I know exactly what you mean about tweaking the central heating. I used to do the same. Thankfully the air source heat pump is delivering a wonderful steady heat and we have no thermostat! Though we may need to turn the settings down, it gets too hot sometimes!!
Perhaps deer graze (grrrr)! Or browse?
One of our friends has just had an air source heat pump installed as well, it’s worth thinking about. It’s a case of where we put all the gubbins.
Your photographs are wonderful showing off the autumn colour. We should enjoy it while it lasts, any frost will send the leaves to carpet the floor.
Thanks Brian. Yes, I think this time next week it will all be history. It’s the bit I don’t like about autumn… winter is next!!
Love those last two photos of the woods. Woodlands are very hard to come by here in Spain.
Hi Karen, thanks and welcome to rusty duck.
Aaah, but you have by far the better climate and for that I would give up a lot!
Those purple berries on the Callicarpa are a wonderful colour. We have very few trees with leaves on here, autumn is well and truly on the wane…..enjoy it whilst it lasts!
I have just come in after shoving all the pots into the greenhouse ahead of tonight’s potential frost down here. That’ll put an end to leaves and flowers, sadly. Hey ho, it’ll all be back next year won’t it.
Your A. Osakazuki leaves with the cyclamen is so beautiful, they contrast so well. I love the shot of your woodland, at this time of year all the trees are looking wonderful. November is such a special time, not dull and dreary at all.
Sorry to hear about the deer, the only time we know that we have had them in the garden is when we have had snow, then we can follow their footprints round the garden, but that hasn’t happened for a few years now.
I’m considering getting one of those field cameras, I’d love to know what walks around here that I don’t know about. You’re right, snow on the ground reveals so much more than you think.
Beautiful sceneries Jessica. The autumn colour in your garden is sumptuous!
Thanks guys. It’s disappearing by the day, with more and more of the other side of the valley revealing itself.
Wonderful shots! I love all your captured colors!
Thank you. It’s been a great year for colour.
Your Cyclamen are looking beautiful – we have some new in the garden, the first time. Four different sorts. I’m looking forward for flowers!
Your garden looks like a park – it is realy lovely.
Sigrun
I hope your cyclamen do well. Something ate all the flowers off mine, squirrels I think. I only have the leaves!
It has been a lovely autumn here as well. Normally we shoot through from late summer (which lingers on and on and on), to early winter, hardly pausing to have an autumn, but the calm, warm, weather as pushed winter back, so this year autumn has been able to have a proper season. Lovely photos as usual.
It’s been so mild so far, the plants are very confused. Primroses out already.. and the cabbage white butterflies flew late. And laid eggs.. I’ve lost all the sprouts becuase I took the netting off too early.
We can’t even begin to compete with your surroundings here, Jess, but we are lucky enough to live on the doorstep of our town park – hundreds of acres of trees and lake and all looking stunning at this time of year, too. One of my clematis has just put on its second flowering of the year which was a bit of a surprise.
The park sounds lovely, sometimes I really miss the rented cottage we had next to the lake. There are all sorts of weird things happening in the plant world. The roses are still pumping out buds. But all change tonight. It’s clearing from the west. Temps dropping like a stone here.
Lovely colours Jessica – I MUST get the last of my bulbs in this next week – possibly buy more barrels…. we’ll see but I MUST get out there now the bedroom/study is finished.
You and me both Denise. It’s been so wet… but drier next week so I must do likewise.
Absolutely beautiful photographs, such rich and vibrant colours, they have taken their time this year! I will ensure I get out for a walk today and appreciate their fiery hues, and keep an ear out for any deers!! 😉 if I have ever investigated a suspicious sounding rustle of leaves in the woods it’s always turned out to be a bulshy blackbird rooteling for treats!
Thanks Katie. Blackbirds make such a noise you tend to think it’s a much bigger animal. Here it could also be squirrels. There are far too many, it’s all out war out there at the moment. But if they are fighting amongst themselves they’ve less time to steal the bird food.
You see, it is an animal sanctuary!! I think that you should definitely turn up the heating, Mike is far more likely to notice you turning into a block of ice than the increase in temperature and we don’t want you being all icy cold!! xx
I think I’ve found the source of the cold and it’s a gap under the kitchen door. Must get Mike busy with draught excluder. And while his attention is diverted the heating control may still get accidentally nudged.
Love the Callicarpa, I think I may have to get one here now :o)
It’s such an unusual colour. Takes a while to establish itself but seems to get better every year.
Your garden and landscape are really quite spectacular with color for autumn. Those pesky deer are in my garden this winter nibbling too. I leave a few things that their nibbles can’t hurt and cover the rest. Love the view from your window and that acer is really gorgeous with the red leaves amongst the moss. I think it is colder when it is damp then when it is snowing….turn up the heat and stay warm.
I’d agree about cold and damp. It’s so much lighter with snow on the ground too and any sunlight there is seems to get intensified. It feels so much more cheery than the dank grey days.
Beautiful, just beautiful.
Thanks Jill. If only it could last.
It has been the most spectacularly coloured autumn I can remember. Even here in London everything is golden.
Maybe a blanket over your lap to keep the cold away? It’s what I do…
Hi Colleen. You’re right. The colour has been spectacular and it’s been a good couple of months at least since the cornus trees first started to colour up.
A blanket.. and a dig around the bottom of the wardrobe for my big sheepskin boots.
Beautiful colours, and glad you caught a glimpse of the creature in the woods. Here we’ve gone from fall colours, to bare trees of Autumn to snows of winter and back to springlike temperatures and green grass … all within several days.
I hope it isn’t as hard a winter for you as last year. One minute they say we’re in for a hard winter and the next they say mild and wet. What will be will be I suppose.
Leaves are clinging on here and that golden glow of the weak sunshine on them at the end of the day is uplifting. Your trees in the woodland, especially the beeches, are beautiful – a great place to take a walk although you never know what you’ll find there!!
As long as it isn’t a beast!
You have some gorgeous colours in the garden. My oak tree is looking particularly colourful at the moment too.
I never realised oak could be as colourful as it has been this year.
Surely it is important to Mike that you should not get hypothermia lest he should have to take over the blog posts?
Perish the thought!
My first thought was alligator. That acer is absolutely stunning. Love those purple berries, they’re so unusual. CJ xx
Do alligators like squirrels? Or mice?
I wonder if the birds will eat the purple berries. Perhaps they will when all the usual ones are gone. I have been watching the blackbird’s antics in the pyracantha today – big bird, weak branches..
beautiful colours Jessica especially the acer, when you mentioned splashing in water and rustling I thought of otters, no such luck, pesky deer, Frances
No, no such luck. I doubt the river is deep enough, although it’s been going at a fair tilt today. Apparently next week will be drier, if cold. Might even get the bulbs planted.
Your fall foliage is gorgeous, Jessica! I’d get lost in staring out the window and wouldn’t get anything done. Perhaps you should try sneaking a space heater under the table – my husband and I also argue about the thermostat so that’s what I do.
Thanks Kris. There is a space heater in the greenhouse. When I was in there today it was positively toasty. The plants are warm and I am cold. C’est la vie.
Your woodland view is positively glowing along with the acer Jessica and I hope that you had the same sunshine as we did today savour it all before the frost arrives. Our new caravan has a woodland view too but unfortunately the best glimpses are from the bedroom and the loo 🙂 Tweak that thermostat or put your thermals on – it’s so much colder tonight.
Yes, plenty of sunshine today so I was able to gather in all the pots and settle them in to the greenhouse. There’s a lot to be said for a loo with a view.
Love your callicarpa. I put one in last winter……couldn’t resist those vibrant berries!!
They’re brilliant aren’t they. A lot smaller than I thought, but plenty of them so they still make an impact.
I love the colour of the callicarpa berries – they would go very well with our pink rowan berries!
A pink berried rowan tree is on my list.
What a lovely glimpse of autumn, and a glimpse of a peaceful, wonderful place to live. The woodland is looking fantastic at the moment but as you say it will be short-lived. The callicarpa berries are stunning, and almost unreal!
If autumn was always like this I could almost come to love it. The blackbirds have left the berries alone so far, perhaps they’re also wondering if they are real!
Those colours are amazing it’s a shame they will soon be over for another year. Sarah x
Yep, the frost of the last two nights has done for it now. It is such a shame.
Hi Jessica…..
A lovely story with lovely pictures….
You can grow Cyclamens in the GROUND?
Unbelievable…..
Enjoy your week…
Cheers!
Linda :o)
Some of the species are quite hardy here.. C. hederifolium in the autumn and C. coum in early Spring. I’m trying to build up colonies but they spread SOooooo slowly!
I buy them in a pot, as an indoor plant…..
Perhaps next summer I will add a few to my baskets!
I used to do well with indoor cyclamen, perhaps I should get one too. Brighten the old place up a bit!
Beautiful foliage colors! I’m relieved that you beast was deer. While it may eat your plants, it most likely won’t be thinking of you as its next meal!
I can probably put up with the occasional visit, especially if it stays in the woodland. Wherever we live it seems there is something out there waiting to thwart our best efforts.
love those gorgeous purple berries on the Callicarpa – it is new to me and will be going onto my wish-list. I thought you might be heartened to read this post on a lovely blog that I have started following – http://www.theimpatientgardener.com/2014/11/a-new-plan-for-warding-off-deer.html
Thanks for that Annie, I have added Erin to my feedly list. The lengths we have to go to to protect our plants!
Spectacular Autumn glows, it makes your home so warm and inviting.
Your woodland view is beyond magical, like a time forgotten.
Those blinking deer, they eat everything !
~Jo
They do!
The woodland does look like an ancient place. With fallen trees, everything covered in moss and ferns growing high up on branches it feels as though it hasn’t been disturbed in years.
Lovely post Jessica, you are early for foliage day which is the 22nd so you’ve beaten me to it this month!
The internet is playing games with us Christina, you seem to have come in on last year’s post. Besides, I’d never be that well organised!