Autumn in Savages Wood appeared to peak during the third-week of October this year and pretty much to schedule - perhaps a week early or two at the most. As it turned out, the duration of Autumn was quite short but, to my eye anyway, the colours seemed more intense that we’ve seen for a while.

Last year I started to explore ‘The Forest’ as it’s known to locals. This summer I spent lots of time exploring a handful of areas with a mind for Autumn woodland photography. This really helped identify those places that didn’t have potential meaning I could focus on selected areas during the Autumn period.

On the Western edge of the Cotswolds is the village of Cranham. Hidden away under the trees in this traditionally sheep farming area are decades-old drystone walls which are now gracefully decaying.

To the East of Wickwar are several small woods. Nestled within the young, straight trees are curvey trees. These contrast wonderfully against their straight neighbours.

Avoiding the temptation of arboretums, I made a concerted effort this year to explore somewhere not far away, somewhere I really should know much, much better. The Forest of Dean is about 15 miles away and sits between Chepstow and Ross-on-Wye on the Western side of the river Severn. This year I started by thinking carefully about why previous trips hadn't worked and what I could do better.

It's been a long, hot, dry and sunny summer in the UK; the best for many a year.  But long days filled with dust and haze make it my least favoured time of year for photography.   In fact, the camera stayed in its bag for the whole time!  With Autumn approaching and in September I returned to Dartmoor but it was a week of high winds and road-level clouds all thanks to the remnants of US hurricanes making it across the Atlantic.  Nothing came from that trip :-(