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Winter is coming
Oct. 11th, 2020 08:06 pmYesterday we went to Harcourt Arboretum. Of course, everything nowadays must be booked in advance, and we'd put this off for a week or two due to weather, but the forecast was reasonable so we decided to take our chance.
It's many years since our last visit and I can't say I remember much, so I don't know how much it has changed. Not a great deal, I imagine. There is a lot of open space for an arboretum; presumably the Harcourts only wanted a limited area devoted to trees.
Having got some decent exercise by wandering the perimeter of the meadow, we eventually found our way to the acer glade, one of the main attractions for this season. One or two trees had already gone over; some were still quite green, whilst others were in transition.
One thing I do remember from the previous visit is the prevalence of peacocks. "The peacocks are not owned by the Arboretum. They are wild animals and may be unpredictable. Please do not feed the peacocks", warned the leaflet. Those we saw were presumably relative youngsters, as they seemed to have some downy feathers still, and they were no especially co-operative for photography. The litter of Oxford Sandy and Black pigs were a bit more open to these opportunities, I suspect having learned that the humans often approach with food.
Though there were some cloudy spells, it remained dry and was often quite bright. With indoor attractions not a viable option for the foreseeable future, there's limited scope to get out and about. Covid cases remain relatively low here, but have doubled in the past week, and quadrupled from a couple of weeks ago, an all-too familiar pattern.
It's many years since our last visit and I can't say I remember much, so I don't know how much it has changed. Not a great deal, I imagine. There is a lot of open space for an arboretum; presumably the Harcourts only wanted a limited area devoted to trees.
Palmer's Leys Meadows
Having got some decent exercise by wandering the perimeter of the meadow, we eventually found our way to the acer glade, one of the main attractions for this season. One or two trees had already gone over; some were still quite green, whilst others were in transition.
Traffic-light acer
One thing I do remember from the previous visit is the prevalence of peacocks. "The peacocks are not owned by the Arboretum. They are wild animals and may be unpredictable. Please do not feed the peacocks", warned the leaflet. Those we saw were presumably relative youngsters, as they seemed to have some downy feathers still, and they were no especially co-operative for photography. The litter of Oxford Sandy and Black pigs were a bit more open to these opportunities, I suspect having learned that the humans often approach with food.
Oxford Sandy and Black pigs
Though there were some cloudy spells, it remained dry and was often quite bright. With indoor attractions not a viable option for the foreseeable future, there's limited scope to get out and about. Covid cases remain relatively low here, but have doubled in the past week, and quadrupled from a couple of weeks ago, an all-too familiar pattern.
Harcourt Autumn Leaves