Finches, Cool Evenings And Apple Harvest

Autumn Arrives In The Fens

   Cool sunlight shines upon the stubble this September morning, high thin cloud rush over the east as if in a race to the coast and dew covered dyke's snake across the flat droves and fens like great veins of life through an harvest desert. Finches chatter as seed is gleaned, their bright red masks flicker in the sun while beaks roll the seeds with expertise, like noble little princes they sit above the garden, no squabbles do they cause just chatter of news and eyes that never miss a move.
   Another cool night has passed and more signs of season change stand out in this rich strange land, apples drop from ancient branches and plum hang in golden bunches with their purple hints of sweetness, Victoria such a fitting name for such a regal fruit.
   The black berries of bramble fill the hedgerows like tiny dark gems and wild plum and bullace sit nestled upon leaf rich bushes while damson start to ripen in the early autumn sun. Wild garlic and cress fill river banks and verge and cow parsley just gives that hint of tiredness, another sign of a season's end.
   Soon the late afternoons will once more give the scent of garden fires with bean stalks and dried harvest remains burning slow, the nights will draw in until the evenings pass for another year and cold dark hours will once more rule our world.
   For this bead hermit a autumn morning once more brings smiles and thoughts of cooler days, no more the heat of summer will force his hours to shorten nor will his brow be wet, for ahead he knows longer days will once more be spent at his flame. And in just one week his barn is ready to welcome again those he knows and those he helps with beads of glass.