I have been travelling back and forth between London and Hitchin a good deal in recent years. The train journey through the Hertfordshire countryside is (literally) a window on the seasons as they change.  

 Hitchin station is located in a deep cutting through chalk; amazing to think it was excavated with pick and shovel. The trees that colonise the banks above have morphed through their autumnal hues. Bare branches are stark against the skyline as the last leaves fall.