Golden birch

Having complained about the lack of autumn colour along the river, today I took Rosie to the Wildlife Trust's reserve at Ring Haw, which is on the free-draining limestone. There was the remains of a frost when I arrived and it certainly felt a lot cooler than yesterday, even in the sun. Silver birch is a troublesome invader at this disused quarry, rapidly invading areas of flower rich grassland. But it does provide beautiful colour at this time of year. The oaks in the ancient woodland on the right are just beginning to turn a warm shade of brown along the edge of the wood, though many trees in the interior are still very green.

It's hard to believe that less than a hundred years ago this was a major industrial area. Beyond the birches on the left of the picture there is a deep gullet, where iron-rich ore was quarried, and in other areas limestone and silica clay were extracted. At the bottom of the hill it's still possible to see the remains of the former railway track beds and sidings which were used to transport the quarry products, much going to the former steel town of Corby. An area known as the 'calcining banks' was used to refine the extracted iron ore by burning it for three months in order to remove moisture, oxides, carbonates and other compounds - where rabbits disturb the soil it's still possible to see the spoil from this process as a black layer above the limestone.