Country diary: An autumn fireball that's a sanctuary for insects | Kate Blincoe

Caistor St Edmund, Norfolk: The Robin's pincushion is a most rare vision - and has an unexpected origin for its unusual nameIt's sunflower season here, and the day is as soft and sweet as plum wine. I've given up alcohol for September, between the long evenings of summer and Christmas festivities. But the air is full of booze. Underfoot, damsons squish and ferment. Blackberries have turned, and big fat sloes hang like baubles on the blackthorn. Garlands of hop flowers decorate the bushes, and signs for our local beer festival spring up by roadsides.Among all the hedgerow abundance is an unusual scraggly shape. A messy orb of green and red fronds, about the size of a satsuma. The fuzzy mass feels like moss, and is alive, growing directly from a wild rose, erupting from the stem like a flower. Continue reading...