The leaves are really turning a burnished colour now and the leaf collecting in the garden is becoming quite time consuming. Looking at the leaves still to fall means I will be busy for some while. Leaves have finished from the apple trees, wisteria but not the oaks.
Taking a break from gardening I had set aside some time to read the November section in this book....
Each month I read (reread) Flora Thompson's jottings for that month. November includes observations on migrating birds, mosses, newts,moles, and squirrels.
I love this section about her meeting with the hedger-and -ditcher.
'One day last week as I passed on my way to the village, I stopped to watch the hedger-and-ditcher at work. Upon one side of him the thorn boughs lay prone in the puddles; upon the other, the old hedgerow stood brown and shaggy and berried, just as it has stood untouched for a generation or more. I could not help but admire his dexterity as he stripped the shoots which his billhook had spared, drew them down and laid them horizontally, interlacing them to form a long, low fence, about the height and thickness of a hurdle.
'Takes some doin', that does!' he remarked in answer to my unspoken thought.
He was a stranger, a tall old man, apple-cheeked and direct of eye, one who knew his own worth, probably , and demanded his due, always taking care to give good value for it. The very way he handled the billhook proclaimed him highly skilled, as indeed he must have been, or he would have not been imported to do that especial job while many younger men went workless.'
Fabulous post and I also have that book, I love dipping into it throughout the seasons......STUNNING photos too.
ReplyDeleteKaren
Lovely photo--so many shades of color upon the leaves. Sounds like a book worth looking into. Mickie :)
ReplyDeleteIsn't that funny, the apples are the last to lose their leaves here while my oak lost them at least a week or more before. With the cooler weather it's so nice to curl up with a book isn't it?
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