Summer leaves await a glorious autumnal death

Symonds Yat Rock, Forest of Dean This is an old world forest; organic, unwieldly, fecund, oaky – forest as nature wantedSummer’s end, and the forest is thick. Beneath the leaves, the sun creates puddles of bright and black, through a canopy still swollen enough to block most of its light. Roads are green tunnels. Paths are dark and have a warm smell, the dense flotilla-dust of bug, web and sap lit brilliantly in the air. Soon the forest leaves will burn, through every shade of russet