THE MOST COLOURFUL of our seasons is autumn which marks the transition from summer into winter when the many shades of green that have decked our countryside change to a range of russets, from yellow and gold to red and brown.
Its start is listed as the autumnal equinox around September 22nd when night and day are almost the same length although most people equate the beginning of autumn with the last week in October when the clocks go back one hour to mark the end of British summertime This not only heralds the start of the dark evenings but means that much of the summer foliage will soon begin to die and disappear as the colder conditions of winter approach.
In the woods, bracken rapidly turns from green to brown and eventually rots away completely. Similarly, leaves on deciduous trees will soon disappear but before that happens, we are compensated by a wonderful display of colour as the canopy of green is transformed into browns and gold as the woodland begins to look more spectacular than at any other time of the year.

Quite surprisingly, some new plant life also emerges amid the decaying leaves and rotting timber in the shape of what are popularly known as mushrooms and toadstools. Collectively, these growths are officially known as fungi and it is about this time that many start to appear or fruit. There are almost 4,000 different species in Britain, varying in size from a toadstool only a fraction of an inch tall to a bracket fungus attached to a tree trunk which can be as much as 30 inches across.
The proliferation of fungi and leaf colour display varies from year to year, depending on the annual weather pattern, and the images shown here are a compilation of photos taken over the last four years, all captured locally and mostly in Bourne Wood but also in Dole Wood and Thurlby Fen Slipe.