What we now call an Indian Summer used to be referred to as "St Luke's Little Summer" (for a warm spell close to 18th October, St. Luke's day) and today definitely qualifies for one or the other appellation.

It's been a lovely day, but none the less, seeing a Red Admiral sunning itself on a stone wall in the middle of October feels like something of a curiosity, although a moment's consideration reminds us that it's not a rare sight. But it does make for a nice composition along with the reddening vines leaves that top the wall.

The sky clouds up some during our walk, but the sunlight breaks through the clouds to put on yet another fine show over the Isle of Frogs.

(BTW, for completeness, other terms found for an Indian Summer include: St. Martin's Summer, used to describe a warm spell close to St. Martin's day on 18th November; Old Wives' summer and lastly All-hallown summer, which in its own right was also called Allhallow Summer; All Saints' Summer.)

On occasion, we will extend our walk through Kings Wood up the hill and along the contours to Cross Plain. Once we've gained the height, it is really only a gentle amble along the spine back towards Hill Farm and then a short pull up to the trig point on Wavering Down to enjoy extensive all-round vistas.

As Kings Wood gives way to the open ground of Cross Plain, there is a fine grove of sweet chestnut trees with half a dozen of the local squirrels busying themselves high up in the canopy.

We've mentioned the British White Park cattle in previous posts, they are extremely good-natured and are apparently doing a great job in helping to improve Crook Peak's SSSI status (from "unfavourable" to "recovering"). Whilst I was taking this photo, a nearby walker's dog got a bit of a shock when one of the cattle responded playfully to its advance.

Managing grassland is a dauntingly complex task. A small herd of Dartmoor ponies has been recruited to assist with the grazing and they were clustering around the trig point as we arrived. This pony was using the trig point as a windbreak --- the prevailing wind is fairly constant and, if you're standing around at 300-odd metres above sea level with an open western aspect, the cooling breeze quickly becomes a bit nippy, then chilly, then downright cold.

On the way back down we spotted these fungi at the foot of a tree --- if anything screams "Don't eat!", these do. When we later reviewed the images on the computer we realised that the gloss was actually reflecting the trees behind us and the sunset over Wavering Down.

We get the sense that Kings Wood is very sensitively managed, there are some large old tree stumps which have been left for the woodpeckers and to be colonised by groups of fungi. We found this small group growing in a sheltering crevice of an old oak.

Nearer home I spotted these leaf patterns on the pavement. We had had a recent torrential downpour that washed quite a lot of gravel dust off the path, across the pavement and down the road, leaving the pattern of some field maple leaves imprinted in the residue.