November - first frosts. Leaves are falling - not all at once, but in batches. Some of the oaks are still green. Some lovely colours this year, particularly anything in the maple family, spindleberries and cotinus. The goats can't get enough of the new-fallen leaves.
Soon we will be able to see the silhouettes of the trees and bushes - and the birds' nests which have been there all summer. Always worth looking closely at the nests - very clever construction, all made from local, recycled materials - including bits of string, dog hair, goat hair, lichen, moss. Oak leaves are very popular. In hedgerow near my greenhouse, I think there are three blackbirds' nests - too many leaves still to see properly - and in Moore's Meadow, along the Ashford Road hedgerow, there must be a wren's nest, as a family was seen there last summer. I havn't found it yet.
Speaking of birds, look out for first immigrants - male blackbirds with brown beaks are from the Continent; jays may come from as far away as Poland if the acorn harvest there fails. Watch out, also, for goldfinches around Major's Pond. It may be a bit early for them yet - tiny, tiny little round birds, smaller than a wren, greeny-brown with a bright read splash on the back of the head, very busy. There is a resident pair of goldfinches somewhere near Major's Pond, but they do migrate too.
The light can be amazing about an hour after dawn or an hour before sunset.