Autumn at Hoe Rough

A gallery of photos that I took on a sunlit autumn afternoon following  a walk that we downloaded from Norfolk County Council's Norfolk Trails.

We stumbled upon a local fairy settlement. I hoped that they did't mind me sharing some photos of their architecture.

One of them made it clear that he did.

Some bees had been playing noughts and crosses while they waited for flowers to start blooming again.

There were still some golden leaves clinging on but the carpet of brown foliage underfoot was becoming thicker. Without their leaves, the trees' characters were revealed.

As our hemisphere starts to tilt away from the sun and our days get shorter, there is less time for the leaves to photosynthesise and it becomes uneconomical for deciduous trees to devote their energy to leaf growth. Instead they turn their energy to fruiting in early autumn and conservation as the weather starts to turn colder.

If you go out walking in the New Forest at this time of year its not unusual to see droves of pigs roaming around noisily. They are let loose to eat the acorns that are poisonous to the famous New Forest ponies.

I've noticed a lot more mushrooms growing this year than usual. It might be because we've had prolonged spells of rain but it could also be because I've never taken so many woodland walks as I have this year. I'm pretty clueless when it comes to identifying mushrooms but the Google Lens app on my phone suggests that this is Paxillus involutus or 'brown roll-rim'. It was doing a good impression of fallen leaves when I saw it so I nearly walked straight past. Its Wikipedia page says that although some people have eaten it with no ill effects, others have had a severe autoimmune reaction and died horribly. I'll give it a miss.

Fungi play a crucial role in the ecology of woods like these. The mushrooms that we see are just the fruiting bodies produced by the fungus' mycelium. Mycelium is a complex network of hyphae that could be mistaken for roots. The hyphae spread wide beneath the mushrooms, burrowing into the dead wood of fallen trees or the soil. They effectively break down the dead organic matter so that it can absorb the energy and clear the way for new growth.

A pillbox shelter

Ravishing cabbage

The fairy houses are the inspiration for this music link: Between the Cold Moon & the Earth by Steve Hackett is on his Midsummer Night's Dream album. Try to forget for a moment that I've just written the whole page about autumn.