The last couple of weeks have seen a real mix of weather – typically autumnal. At times it’s been absolutely hammering it down here. After what feels like an impossibly long spell of parched heat, in the last week we’ve had some marvellous rainstorms.

These rains have freshened the tired summer greens as though they’ve suddenly been woken up and sparked into life again. As summer drifts into autumn, we’re suddenly presented with the lusciousness of spring.

The heat had left me both mentally and physically exhausted, but I’m finally reviving a little. Autumn, like spring, is a season of change and I’m feeling the effects.

I’m also celebrating the return of mud. No doubt in the depths of Winter I’ll be sick of the stuff, but right now it appears like a magical substance. To walk upon ground that gives, ground that reacts other than by producing a puff of dust, is magical.

Even the birds seem more chipper.