The rail services of the West Country have survived partly for the benefit of summer traffic, so it is possible to read all sorts of messages into this scene of a Looe Valley branch train ambling away from Sandplace station into the golden trees of October. Summer is disappearing from view, life is quietening down again and soon all will be a peaceful, if dull, grey until next Spring. (This is particularly the case for the Looe Valley line, which from the end of October will be stripped of its Sunday trains until next May.)

But first, before the silence of winter, we have that last burst of natural excitement as the trees, realising that leaves just aren't going to be "in" next season, make a flash about how anxiously they are abandoning them. And so the bracken goes brown, the brambles turn maroon and the hillsides flash into a mix of greens and orangles and yellows before the whole affair sags to match the colour of an already leaden sky.

And then we have Christmas to look forward to. But first will come November.