October
Our lush and temperate climate deprives us of the vivid autumn colours of colder parts of the UK. Leaf change is slower and the process is usually interrupted by equinoctial gales that bring down the leaves while still green. Colours, however, are to be found elsewhere in the abundant autumn harvest of hedges and orchards.
October is really apple month in the Valley, with aged trees groaning with fruit, and windfalls piling up on the grassy orchard floor. Local celebrations like the Bere Apple Fest and other Apple Days have become a regular part of the seasonal calendar. Wildlife also enjoys the bounty with birds like the fieldfare visiting orchards and gardens for fallen fruit and red admiral butterflies drinking to excess on fermenting pulp.
On the farm, ploughing is well under way with many of the cereal crops drilled or sown before the winter rains turn the land to mud. The shooting season is announced with occasional distant sounds of gunfire echoing from the valley woodlands and twisting circles of wood smoke emit from chimneys that have been dormant through the summer.
We have several species of deer in the valley, mostly red and roe with some fallow in the Lynher area. October is rutting month and deer are more often seen and heard with stags defending their territory. Their muddy wallows, shallow depressions in woodlands where they scent mark the mud, are also actively used. Walkers who are interested in mammal tracks and signs can also now be vigilant concerning wild boar; signs of their rooting behaviour are now seen occasionally in local woodlands.
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