Autumn

 

March 23. Autumn, seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness … Quinces in the Quincecunx fully formed, but not yet ripe.

April 3 – May 6. The cockatoos have arrived in force to feed on the chestnuts, . The cockatoos arrived only during the 1983 drought, and stayed. It took a few years for them to work out how to eat chestnuts, but now they get the bulk of them, but leave enough for Montacute guests.

April 14 – May 6. The nerines are in flower, and last quite a while, as do the salvias. The trees are beginning to shed their leaves, beginning with the tulip tree.