I took the opportunity of a lovely warm and sunny day last week to head down to this walk alongside the Copperhouse Pool and was delighted to find the tide was out and well over a hundred light-bellied Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) feeding on the mudflats as well as a curlew or two.

It was late afternoon and by the time I reached the end and turned around to walk back to my car the sun was already down behind the hills and the temperature had dropped. But the sight of the geese heading off to their overnight roost was the perfect ending.

The most noticeable thing about this months walk was the colour red and the number of bushes with berries. Apparently the birds like the red ones the best so the yellow berries last the longest on the bushes.

George V Memorial Walk – october 23 2019

• Row 1: Hardy Bromeliad Fascicularia bicolor, Hebe (Veronica), Yucca,  Nandina domestica ‘Firepower’, Fuchsia
•  Row 2: Solanum laxum ‘Album’ – Potato vine, Ilex x altaclerensis ‘Lawsoniana’ (Lawson’s holly), Seed-head, Skimmia japonica, Purple berries – Boobialla ?
• Row 3: Hesperantha coccinea,  Linaria purpurea, the dummy tree¹, Senecio ‘Angel Wings’,² Salvia leucantha or Mexican Bush Sage
• Row 4: Monkey Puzzle tree, Cotoneaster hualiensis (red berries), Chrysanthemums, Hellebore foetidius, pink berries (Snowberry – Symphoricarpos ‘Mother Of Pearl’ ?)
• Row 5: Agapanthus, Echeveria, more red berries, Conifer with cones, Euryops pectinatus

All these photos were taken with my Olympus OM-D E-M10 using a 42mm – 150mm zoom lens. I am going to have to try and get better photos of the berries next month to try and identify the plants.

¹The dummy tree is a small tree at the entrance to the sensory garden where children who have outgrown their dummies hang them on the branches. This one says:

Dear dummy fairies,
I am leaving my dummy because I am a big girl now.
Love from Beau Nash x x x
Age 4
03.09.17

²I think this is Angel Wings. It has very large leaves and has a sensory velvety texture but this seems greener than the ones I have seen elsewhere.

The Changing Seasons | October