Beech woods

The first frost of the year today, but I missed it making some pumpkin soup for Alex to take on his expedition! After dropping him off at Collyweston Great Woods, where he's spending the day coppicing and then camping overnight with a couple of friends (rather him than me), I dropped into Bedford Purlieus, which is one of the few woods locally to have areas of beech woodland. At last there was some autumn colour, the bright sunshine  filtering through the beech leaves, most of which have turned to an amazing shade of acid green, while the more exposed trees had turned to deep copper.

I wandered off the path, which proved to be a bit of a mistake, as my left leg feel deep into an old rabbit hole covered with leaves. Luckily no damage was done, though it took a  little while to extricate myself, and I then realised that the area was being used as a badger latrine, so for the rest of my walk my shoe and trouser leg was decidedly smelly - it brought back memories of my lovely dog Gemma, who always liked to roll in badger dung, and couldn't understand why she had to have a bath every time she did it!