I know people in the USA have had severe hurricanes the past week and usually when it hits the East Coast, bad storms sweep across Cornwall, and sure enough we had some wild weather with masses of rain; to be expected at the tail end of autumn. It cleans the trees and brings down the last of the leaves ready for winter.
The hill on which I live is left a mess of mud, leaves and twigs and even the odd branch. It all turns to a mush and as people like walking this hill they have to skip some places if they are not wearing the right shoes. Several years ago they sent a mechanised road sweeper up and down the road and it looked lovely and I smiled as it was back to normal within three days.
I have often worried how people come down from cities into the countryside and start to want there to be less cows’ mess, less smelly manure put on fields, fewer dirty clothed farmers walking into the local shop to buy lunch, and above all dogs that do not mess the roads. They are the same people who drive the roads like maniacs and don’t want to give way to horse riders.
Nature is a very messy yet beautiful system. In the mud after the rain there are worms to be saved, and bluebells washed out of the hedges to be planted. Above all the next season of mess is lying low in the cold ready to grieve those who don’t care for them next year.