Autumn Colours Bracken is fox-red in the stem, still green
on the upper fronds. Elderberries show clusters of red stripped fingers when the berries have gone. Beech nuts, not often so fat and sweet as this year, make coffee-brown drifts on the rain-washed roads. Slowly the distances begin to open up ; the stubbles change colour, fawn to brown ; the new yellow stacks light up the dark earth. Quinces are golden on still green trees, and the doll-sheaves of flax still stand, not more than two feet high, as if children were playing at farming. The feeling of half-season, still summer, not yet winter, is charming. In the sun the bees are furious in the ivy blossom, and soon ivy, so often despised as a parasitical and repellent thing, will be the most beautiful of winter plants, miniature hands clutching the frosted wall, polished leaves so softly grey-veined, berries black and luscious through the heart of winter.
Previous page
