Autumn

For us, September is a welcome relief from peak season. We have more time to talk to visitors and each other, before starting the Shieling pack up and our winter programme. By day, beautiful rainbows often light up sky and sea. At night, you can gather round the campfire under the stars and listen to the hoot of the Tawny owl.

Pick the brambles for a delicious dessert. On the trees, the leaves are a feast of colour: the yellow of the Birches; the red of the Rowan and Gean, and the bronze, orange and gold of the beeches. Later, the Redwings and Fieldfares will appreciate the bright red berries of the Rowan and Hawthorn. The myriad of colours continues under the trees with fungi, all different colours and shapes.

Young robins appear with dapper red breasts to inspect any hole we are digging. We are told they are “bricklayers’ ghosts”. As it gets colder and food scarcer, Hedgehogs and Field Mice may rustle through your Shieling or tent at night to see what you have to offer.

On the sea, Eider ducks croon and gossip sociably in their “well, I never” voices. You may see a second brood of otters. Up on the hills, you will hear the stags roaring in the rut, as they compete for the attention of the hinds. Later in the winter they will lose their antlers then re-grow them in the spring