Geese and long shadows.

The past week saw a mixed bag of weather. Monday and Tuesday dawning dry and bright, light winds and blue skies. Wednesday brought gales and cancelled ferries. A small respite on Thursday and then more of the same, the gales are set to run out of steam by lunchtime today.

Days are drawing out, light now by eight and dusk by four thirty, a month ago dusk would start to draw a veil over the day at not much after three. Despite the longer days the sun still sits low in the sky. Morning and afternoon light casting long shadows.

In the garden, gales permitting, we started to thin out shelter belt alders, choosing the thinnest, those that were being overshadowed by stronger siblings. Giving space for the others to thicken and grow. Nearest to the garden, where space allows, we’ll now start to add other species, pink flowering ribes sanguineum for early flying bumblebees, amelanchier canadensis for autumn colour. Both have proved to be hardy here.

The thin alder trunks have been put to good use. At the southern edge of the rear garden a simple zig-zag fence has been started, a divider between a shady border and a small in progress copse of trees. Not a barrier, just a full stop for the eye, the garden ends here.

The brash, tied in bundles, was placed here and there among rough grasses at the edge of the moor. A haunt of Stonechats and Meadow Pipits. In spring the males of the latter rise like larks before slowly falling back earthwards like a leaf on a still autumn day, a display flight for the ladies of the species. They nest among tussocks and may well set up home beneath the twiggy brash, if not, a lair for spiders and others.

As the first bundles were placed four Red grouse were flushed, bursting away, skimming the heather at sheeps back height. Birds that are often heard here but rarely seen.

Greylags visited the meadow, grazing the short mown sward before dozing away the afternoon. At least one bird always on guard, head up and alert, honking a low warning if we were spotted in the garden.