Autumn Blues

The view above the Darenth near Shoreham is fields of autumnal brown. The small nature reserve of White Hill, slivers of chalk grassland hidden within dense yew Taxus baccata and beech Fagus sylvatica woods and ever-encroaching dogwood Cornus sanguinea and whitebeam Sorbus aria scrub, is brightly lit by the evening light.

The last butterflies work the final plants to flower; devil’s bit scabious Succisa pratensis and field scabious Knautia arvensis.

Bumblebees work the scabious. A milk white crab spider Misumena vatia, hidden on a flower head, hunts visiting insects and snatches then kills with practiced ease. Autumn is arriving and summer is dying.

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The view down the narrow lane.

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