Country diary: The geese are safe from us, but are we safe from the geese? | Nicola Chester

Inkpen, West Berkshire: Among the Michaelmas traditions, at the end of the agricultural year, was the giving of a fattened goose. Today they've got the run of the lanesToday is Michaelmas, the Feast of St Michael and All Angels. As I walk past the little village church of that same name, with its plough beside the door and farmworkers buried outside, the nuts lie thick on the lane. A muesli of hazel and beechnuts makes a hard, satisfying crack underfoot. A covering of acorns has been milled to a coarse, greeny-white flour by passing tyres.As one of the four "quarter days" near to each solstice, Michaelmas was traditionally a time of endings and beginnings on farms, when workers were hired, rents due and leases or sales of farms transacted. This can still be felt. On the quiet days of a September freshening, when even the rooks soften their calls, a brief holiday ease is acknowledged before the battle with the elements begins. Continue reading...