Every autumn I take photos of the sherbet-coloured leaves on the trees outside my office window. Every autumn I end up with the same dull picture. The difference this year is that it’s mid-November. And there are still green leaves on that tree.

If past seasons are anything to go by, salmon should start returning to Piper’s Creek any day. Perhaps they already have and I just haven’t seen them. Last year was disappointing–I saw two or three sickly looking fish, as opposed to the hundreds and hundreds of the year before. Given the weirdness of this summer and autumn I’m not sure what to expect. But I’ll let you know.

Meanwhile, in Hild world it’s late summer: still, hot nights, owls swooping out of the dusk to snatch away a singing greenfinch, the queen has just had a Big Idea that is going to end badly. Good times…