The leaves are turning and falling, so why not find a weekend afternoon to visit an arboretum and see how many of the things on our back cover nature table you can spot in the wild?
The leaves are turning but there are still plenty of good weather days to be had. One way to make the most of the last warmish weekends, and embrace autumn, too, is to pack up your camera and a picnic and head to an arboretum. With the trees turning orange, red and gold, you should be able to capture lots of amazing pictures of the autumn colour on display. Many of the big arboreta have trails you can follow to make sure you don’t miss any of the more unusual or special specimens growing there. An outing to an arboretum is also a chance to connect with nature and improve your wellbeing. You don’t have to go in for a full tree hug (though we would encourage it!) but some light forest bathing, just sitting at the foot of a tree, looking up at the canopy, can help to reduce stress and boost your mood. And if not, a flask of soup on a blanket alongside a spot of leaf identification is sure to leave you in mood for the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.
This idea for a day out was featured on our Almanac Pages, where each month we collate a few seasonal things to note and notice, plan and do. The nature table image above was taken by Alice Tatham of The Wildwood Moth who takes a photograph for our back cover each month, featuring things to appreciate in nature. She also runs workshops on seasonal photography and publishes seasonal journal stories from her home in Dorset.
Buy this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
