“Mast” is the collective term for the nuts, seeds and fruits of the forest. 2025 is being called “A Mast Year” because of the abundance of acorns, beech nuts, conkers and sycamore seeds.

The extraordinary thing about it is that trees appear to work together to produce such a year - quite how they do this we don’t know, but experts think the purpose is to produce so much "mast" that small mammals and birds cannot devour the whole crop and therefore sufficient will be left to seed new trees.

Alongside the trees it has been a sensational year for wild berries and fruits. However, these rely on animals to eat, digest and redistribute their seeds so the logic does not work the same as the trees.

The Autumn colours are considered more vibrant and splendid than usual this year due to the heat of the Summer causing more sugar to be produced in the leaves, which then become much brighter as the green chlorophyll fades.

Perhaps the explanation is simpler than we might all imagine - we enjoyed an exceptional Summer and now Nature is simply celebrating this.