Nature

It may be getting colder, the nights may be drawing in and the leaves on the line may be affecting your journey to work - but it's difficult to deny that autumn is a beautiful time of year.

A field maple in autumn

The trees, plants and bushes in our towns and countryside are preparing themselves for the winter, and the leaves which served them well in the summer are about to drop. But before they go they provide us with a gorgeous golden display.

This year's summer has allowed many of our ornamental trees to flourish in the autumn. The spindle tree's berries, for example, have developed various vivid colours, primarily to attract birds to their seeds.

Red berries of the Guelder Rose

The guelder rose is another exponent of fine autumnal colours, with its yellow-ish leaves and translucent red berries, while the field maple tree's leaves range from purples and greens to oranges and yellows.

BBC Essex's Renee Hockley-Byam has been to Marks Hall at Coggeshall where you can enjoy our native trees in the woodland as well as exotics in the arboretum, where she's been looking at some of her favourite trees with Curator Jonathan Jukes.