October

October is a time of change, a month when nature is adjusting to the coming winter. Wildfowl are on the move, driven on their journeys, small groups of them stopping briefly on their way through on Lochan nan Al by the shop, an avian hotel....

....for passing wigeon and mallard, stoic in the rain.

October's colour is in its berries, a heavy crop of red this year on hawthorn, cotoneaster and rowan. For this rowan, planted by the front gate when our house was built, this is the first crop, much of it already fallen after the recent gales.

October is the month of big skies, of crystal blue air scrubbed by the first winter storms and of clouds torn and stretched by the winds or....

....gathering in grey masses pierced by shards of sun.

October is also the month for rainbows.