Wild maple is a rare sight in Ireland

MOST of the leaves have now gone from the deciduous trees in the wood.

The ash is quite bare, apart from clusters of seed, the limes turned buttery yellow and held on until the first week of the month, then the beech leaves turned copper and gold and started to fall. Only the oaks remain defiantly green.

Around a week ago while I was walking the dog and monitoring the progress of the final phase of autumn I came across a rarity. Actually there were three of them — three medium sized field maples growing amongst the oak, ash and lime.