The Countryside in November

The Brief November Day

John Keble

Red o'er the forest peers the setting sun ;
The line of yellow light dies fast away
That crown'd the eastern copse; and chill and dun
Falls on the moor the brief November day.

Now the tired hunter winds a parting note,
And Echo bids good-night from every glade ;
Yet wait awhile and see the calm leaves float
Each to his rest beneath their parent shade.

How like decaying life they seem to glide
And yet no second spring have they in store
But where they fall, forgotten to abide
Is all their portion, and they ask no more.

Soon o'er their heads blithe April airs shall sing,
A thousand wild flowers round them shall unfold,
The green buds glisten in the dews of Spring,
And all be vernal rapture as of old....

This poem sums up November very well as the month when decay really sets in and we are left in no doubt that this is the death of the year.

It started on a bright note however, with the magnificent beech trees really looking their best, golden, yellow, russet and here and there still a hint of the last green. The leaves were all crisp and coppery by the end of the month, and many young trees and those planted as hedges, will retain their leaves until next years new buds push them off. So too the oak leaves, just a shade lighter than the beech, will remain on the trees until the spring.

One by one the various trees lost their leaves, and it is always cause for speculation as to why alders lose their leaves when green - they never change colour as do all the rest. The larch tree needles were sandy coloured by mid-month, and gradually lost these, leaving a layer of what looks like sand beneath them. Some of the other conifers are losing cones now.

The ash trees look as if they too retain some leaves, but what look like leaves from a distance are thick bunches of seeds - 'ash key' bunches so firmly attached that they will weather all the winter storms and only descend to earth in the Spring.

We found a lot of fruit on the blackthorn (sloes) - branches so laden that when we had picked about a stone of fruit, you could hardly tell where we had been. They were in a hollow which must have been touched by frost, for many were splitting. The family are getting Sloe Gin as a Yule gift this year! Sadly we didn't have the camera with us, so the picture of the purple fruits has to remain in my mind. Perhaps next year we shall be as lucky with the fruit, but it all depends on whether there are frosts at the time when these bushes flower.

The gorse is covered with very pale flower buds, and here and there in situations where they catch the sun, yellow flowers are already appearing.

It has been mild as well as wet, and many plants have continued to flower untroubled by frost - some daring daffodils already showing above the ground. Marigolds and a wonderful red clover are still cheerfully blooming and of course at this time we have the chrysanthemums and the last of the dahlias in the garden. The dahlias will have to be taken up and stored for the winter very shortly.

Some fields are looking either flushed with the green of the winter grain crops or fully clothed with the green tops of root crops destined for animal feed, whilst others are covered with drab decaying vegetation. Some were being ploughed, but around here the amount of rain has made many fields unworkable - even to the extent of potato crops remaining in the fields. Very few cattle are now out in the fields, though there is a herd of brown shaggy long-horned Highland cattle who seem quite unconcerned with the weather. The ewes are now sporting coloured rumps as the ram does his annual work amongst them. (For those un-initiated, the ram bears a coloured wax marker on his chest, and when he mounts a ewe, some is left behind on her rump.)

Garden birds are becoming more bold, and venture closer to the house to be fed, though their need is not so great yet

Perhaps the last words for the end of the month should be those of Thomas Hood

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease, No comfortable feel in any member - No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees, No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds - November!

Though we feel that at least in this year he is a month out!! November wasn't that bad at all!!