Autumn is a most colourful and scenic time of year

. The trees turn fabulous autumn colours as they shed their leaves in readiness for their version of hibernation. It’s amazing how they know the cold winter is coming. Roads and pavements, gardens and woodland floors become covered with a carpet of many shades of oranges, greens, yellows and browns. Squirrels and jays can be seen caching their winter stores of acorns and conkers underground and the first frosts of the year give a lovely crisp feeling when you go for an early morning walk. If you have a good camera it’s a great time of year to get some colourful scenic autumn pictures.

So what else should you be doing in autumn?

Well, it’s time to start looking for ripe seed heads on your wild flowers and collect them to store in readiness for planting early next year. Also you could start looking in nurseries for winter bulbs to grow some early flowers for the first insects to appear next year.