Although we had some cold weather last night, it has been unseasonably warm this October. The trees are looking very scruffy - no autumn colour to speak of this year, just tattered browning - but the herbs that grow in the fields and hedgerows are having an unusually late and sustained flourish.

What is usually a slight greening in September has been almost two months of uninterrupted growth, and as a consequence, the hedgebanks look more like spring than autumn. Lovely fresh growths of purple vetch, cow parsley, dandelions, stitchwort, shining cranesbill, common daisies, yarrow, meadowsweet and lots of others.

More autumnal are the numerous fungi: most spectacularly, a giant puffball I have been watching for several days, which has ballooned to over 30cms across now. But there are also lots of wax-caps, horse mushrooms, ceps, shaggy ink-caps and others around.

This morning, I had to deliver some photos to otterton mill. As it looked like a nice sunny day in prospect, I decided to go for a walk along the front at Budleigh Salterton, a pretty seaside town in East Devon, most famous for being the home town of Giles Wemmbley-Hogg (aka comedian Marcus Brigstocke). He must be 'going off' somewhere else at present, as the beach was full of families on holiday, and the benches with older people dozing in the sun.

In fact, there are so many scores of benches dedicated to dead people who used to holiday there, that it's almost like being in a virtual graveyard! A bit creepy if you ask me: I'd much rather be remembered by a tree (for example) than somewhere to park a stranger's bum.

I managed to go on the day they were dismantling the beach huts for the winter: a bit of a bummer as I have a mild obsession with these glorified sheds.

Jut a few minutes walk from my home is the Undercliff: an almost primeval wilderness of steep land formed by landslips between Lyme regis and Axmouth. This morning was the first sunny day we've had for ages, so I sneaked out for a quick walk before I started work.

The walk takes you over a level field to the top of the cliffs. As I got to the edge, the sound of the sea was suddenly in my ears: a magical experience, as the quiet and birdsong was replaced by the distant roar of the surf.

As I descended the steep path past Pillar Rock, the cool land breeze dropped and I was left in warm sunny air, full of the spicy scent of autumn leaves and wet foliage.

Treats for the eyes as well as the ears and nose: lots of bright berries: sealing-wax red hips, crimson haws, orange gladwyn, and purple sloes; all glittering and gleaming like tiny baubles in the late autumn sunshine.

I enjoyed it while I could: the forecast is for more wind and rain, sadly.

Related link:

http://www.jurassiccoast.com/index.jsp?articleid=157439