In search of autumn colour

I've been struggling to throw off a heavy cold (not Covid... we have to say that now, don't we?) for the last couple of weeks so I haven't really been out a lot, preferring to snuggle up at home with hot drinks on tap and plenty of books. There have, however, been some glorious autumn days with plenty of sunshine and the occasional, sharp shower. Once I started to feel better, I tried to get back into my exercise routine with some short local walks, as ever feeling fortunate to live within a few steps of some beautiful scenery. 

There were plenty of other folk enjoying the sunshine too: a toddler, with his dad, enthralled by the ducks he was feeding beside the Victoria Road canal bridge, local office workers taking a lunch break, cyclists, hikers and dog-walkers along the towpath. Much the same as always... and yet it's never the same, and never boring. 

The autumn colour is deepening, although far from its peak yet. There are a lot of bright yellows locally, with, as yet, few of the reds that are the most spectacular. (We don't get as much red here in our native woodland as, say, in North America where sugar maples grow.) Red does appear in the berries on the hawthorn and holly bushes, which seem laden this year.