Episode 1 Countryfile Autumn Diaries

It's the season that brings with it a kaleidoscope of colour -

when nature puts on some of its greatest displays.

STAG GRUNTS

Autumn.

When our countryside is bursting with bounty.

Whilst some of us are preparing for the colder months ahead.

It's the perfect time to get your boots on,

get out for a walk and enjoy the changing colours of the countryside.

And blow away the cobwebs in the great outdoors.

All week, we're travelling the length and breadth of the UK...

HE CALLS TO TURKEYS

TURKEYS CHATTER

..bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

It was the first time that we'd been flooded.

It was charging down the street and it was very traumatic.

Welcome to Countryfile Autumn Diaries.

Coming up on today's programme...

..Jules uncovers a potentially lethal countryside menace.

The bacteria had got into my heart, created an inflammation,

created scar tissue.

Paul's tuning into the secret messages whizzing through

our woodlands.

There is some kind of communication, something's happening.

There's a communication, yeah, no doubt about it.

And Keeley is doing her bit for our booming woollen industry.

Well, I think you could make a fantastic scarf.

Yes, that sounds good with winter coming up.

Do you think you'll get it finished for then?

-LAUGHTER

-I don't know. What do you think?!

We're spending all this week in the stunning surroundings of

the Lake District National Park.

Spread across more than 900 square miles,

in autumn its vast lakes and woodlands

are picture-postcard beautiful.

Recently designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site,

it draws in more than 18 million visitors every year.

Hillwalking is of course one of this area's main attractions, and in

recent years hikers in the UK have been facing a much more serious

threat than just a blistered big toe.

A relatively unknown menace is on the rise, and it could turn an

autumn stroll into a dance of death.

Here's Jules.

Actress Martine McCutcheon.

Pop star Shania Twain.

Actor Richard Gere.

TV personality Kelly Osbourne.

Four famous faces who've had one pretty nasty experience.

They've all been bitten by one of these, a tick.

Now, these tiny examples may look harmless enough, but they are

responsible for carrying, amongst

other things, Lyme disease.

Cases of that have doubled in the UK in the last year alone, and a bite

from an infected tick can lead to serious health problems.

That's exactly what happened to one of England's top rugby stars.

A World Cup winner in 2003,

scrum-half Matt Dawson has played 77 times for England.

And he's just as well known for his fancy footwork

on the Strictly dance floor.

But nothing could have prepared him for the challenges he faced fighting

Lyme disease, picked up from a tick bite in a London park.

Talk us through what happened.

Yeah, I was doing some training in the park that we'd done for years

before, and I remember going back

that afternoon, and in the evening

just feeling a bit itchy, you know, that's how it felt at the time.

Did you at any point realise that you were bitten?

Not when I was doing the training, no. I had a T-shirt on and shorts,

but this tick had got under the T-shirt and got onto my back.

A few weeks later, when I've seen this little bite, and my wife,

who's from just outside Hamburg, immediately said, "That's Lyme's."

And then I had two days where I was absolutely wiped out, full-on

manflu, on the sofa, but really wiped out.

Little did I know that that was one of the, one of the symptoms.

Untreated, Lyme disease can lead to heart failure, meningitis,

paralysis and even death.

And astonishingly, very little is known about it in this country.

Did your GP recognise it as Lyme disease?

No. This rash started to develop,

probably got to about that big on my back, like a bull's-eye.

It was very, very sensitive on my back, the skin was really,

like, sharp to touch.

When I went to the GP, they didn't have any knowledge around Lyme,

in fact they said,

"It's probably just a mosquito bite that's got infected."

It wasn't until Matt had blood tests as part of a regular checkup that

Lyme disease was finally diagnosed.

By then, major damage had been done.

The bacteria had got into my heart, created an inflammation,

created scar tissue,

then started redirecting some of the electricity around my heart,

was giving me 30,000 extra heartbeats a day.

That's when I had the intravenous antibodies to get rid of the Lyme,

and then I was monitored for three or four days, and have been ever

since, and that involved two heart procedures,

second one being seven hours long, to try and

manipulate the electricity around the heart and get it back on track.

Would you say it's been life-changing for you?

Absolutely been life-changing.

Wherever we are, there is this risk that, if we do get bitten by a tick,

there are huge complications.

Lyme disease is caused by the nasty-sounding Borrelia bacteria,

which are carried by ticks.

15 to 20 years ago, there were only around 250 reported cases of the

disease in the UK each year.

The NHS says there are now as many 3,000 per annum, and failure to

diagnose correctly may mean the figure is even higher.

So what's driving the numbers up so dramatically?

The simple answer is that the tick population is growing, and one

reason for that may be that deer are thriving in this country,

as Professor John Holland from the Game And Wildlife Conservation Trust

explains. Well, John,

it's a lovely day for a walk up here through the Red Deer Park at

Ashton Court, just outside Bristol, but I was surprised to see, on the

gate coming in, a sign warning people of the dangers of Lyme disease here.

You know, how strong is the correlation between deer and the

-disease itself?

-Well, the deer are very important in the life cycle of

the ticks, so they need this blood meal off a large mammal in order to

mature their eggs. Once they've fed on deer, for example,

the adults drop to the ground and lay their eggs, and they lay about

2,000 eggs into the soil. The incidence of Lyme disease is going

up, so more and more cases every year, and also the deer population's

one of the highest since records began, so you could say that the two

are linked, but it's much more complicated than that.

What about climate change, does that play a role?

Climate change is bringing warmer and wetter summers, and that's ideal

for the ticks, because they need those moist conditions, otherwise

they will dehydrate, and the ticks, the way that they attach themselves

to other animals is to crawl up onto the vegetation, so it's a height

where the animal will pick them up,

and warm, moist conditions can help that.

Public Health England estimate that, every day, at least eight of us are

contracting Lyme disease from tick bites.

It's a worrying trend.

Well, from what you've said, you and I are now surrounded, potentially,

by thousands of ticks, but how many of them actually carry the disease?

Well, overall it's very small, maybe half a percent,

so one in 200 ticks might have some Borrelia infection in them.

And, you know, outside of deer parks, are there any other hotspots

-that we should be aware of?

-Well, there's...generally, the south-west

of England, East Anglia are all areas where Lyme disease is more

prevalent, but there are particular hotspots such as the New Forest,

Harewood Forest, Lake District,

but especially the Highlands of Scotland have much higher

levels of Lyme disease.

And ticks aren't just posing an increased threat to us humans.

Recent research has shown that the number of dogs becoming infected by

tick-borne Lyme disease is on the up, too.

Later on in the show, Teddy and I...

-Teddy, come here. Come on.

-HE WHISTLES

..will be finding out what you and your four-legged friends can do to

keep safe in the countryside.

Good boy, come on.

This is Buttermere. The name is thought to come from Old English,

meaning "lake by the dairy pastures", and that's probably the

fertile strip of land that separates Buttermere from neighbouring

Crummock Water.

And, although it's just a fraction of the size of lakes like Windermere

or Ullswater, Buttermere still manages to be breathtakingly

beautiful at this time of year.

The crisper days of autumn are the perfect excuse for wrapping up warm,

so let's take a look at the British wool industry.

It's worth approximately £3 billion, and covers everything from clothing

to carpets, and the good news is that, after decades in the doldrums,

the market for British yarn is now warming up.

Keeley has been unravelling the story.

SHEEP BLEAT

We often hear about traditional

British industries going down the

pan, but it seems there might be one

home-grown business

that's bucking the trend.

And none of it would be possible without these guys.

We now produce over 30,000 tonnes of wool per annum.

Happy news for the woolly-jumper lovers among us,

even better news for knitters.

SHEEP BLEAT

This is my Nana Millie, and she's one of my favourite people in the

whole world. She also happens to be a brilliant knitter.

She knitted us loads of amazing outfits when we were little.

Now, I'm a terrible knitter,

but for her, I'm willing to give it another go.

I might even manage to knit something for Nana this time.

And I couldn't have chosen a better moment to pick up my needles.

Up and down the country, there are over 1,000 knitting clubs.

And apparently, you can even go on knitting holidays.

I'm on my way to Blackpool, but the Vegas of the North isn't just about

roller-coasters and ballroom dancing.

There's a hotel there with an altogether woollier theme.

A few streets back from the legendary seafront,

Paula Chew has spent the last 12 years running mini-breaks for

knitting buffs.

Hello there, Paula, how are you doing? Nice to meet you.

Welcome to the Knitting Hotel.

So I'm hoping she'll be able to get me back up to speed.

-This is an extreme sport, isn't it?

-Yeah!

Oh, crikey!

Ah!

Dangerous, this!

Where on earth did you come up with the idea of a knitting hotel?

-Well, I didn't, it evolved.

-THEY LAUGH

-OK!

-I've always been a passionate knitter, and quite a few of my

guests used to bring their knitting with them. Then I thought,

"Well, why don't I just put a special week on

"for all these people?" And the response was unbelievable.

And then, the next year, I ended up doing eight, and then the next year

-I was a knitting hotel because that's all we did.

-Oh, God!

And do you have the same people coming back year after year?

Oh, yes, I have one guest this year who's booked eight holidays.

-Eight holidays here in one year?

-Eight holidays here in one year.

I don't how you're doing that and talking at the same time, because I

-can barely...

-A lot of my guests can knit and watch television at the

-same time, without even looking.

-Multi-tasking.

Absolutely, the women are amazing.

Nobody is made to feel that they're not quite up to scratch.

-Everybody is at their own level.

-She says, laughing at me!

LAUGHTER

It was the expression on your face!

-Does it get a bit rowdy in there?

-Yes!

LAUGHTER

Because everyone there can knit and talk at the same time, it does get

-very rowdy.

-That sounds like my kind of knitting group, I must admit.

-LAUGHTER

-What could I make out of this?

Well, I think you could make a nice phone cover or a purse, or

if you carry on and put more colours in, it'd make a fantastic scarf.

Oh, yes, that sounds good with winter coming up, that'd be

-good, wouldn't it?

-Yes. Do you think you'll get it finished for then?

-I don't know. What do you think?!

-LAUGHTER

Knit in the car!

I'm sure Nana Millie would love a nice, warm scarf.

Let me see what she thinks.

Hi, Nana. I'm at a knitting hotel.

-Oh, yes?

-Do you want to see what I've been doing?

Oh, yes, yes. Lift it up.

Oh! How long did it take you to do that?

-Oh, only half an hour or so.

-LAUGHTER

That's lovely. That is really lovely.

It'll make a nice little duster!

A duster?! Nana!

OK, so Nana will be waiting a while for that scarf, but there's no

denying that British wool is on the up.

Around a decade ago, prices were in the doldrums,

but they've doubled since then.

We have over 60 pure breeds of sheep in this country.

That's more than anywhere else on the planet.

About a fifth of British wool clip is processed at this Bradford depot,

and the tricky task of sorting the Swaledales from the Herdwicks

falls to graders, like Ian Brooksbank.

Hello, Ian, how are you doing?

-All right.

-What are you looking for here, because these all look pretty

-much the same to me.

-What you're looking for, really, ideally, in a

-fleece, is the length of staple.

-And each one of these is a staple?

Each one of these is a staple. You're looking for uniformity of a

fleece, looking for a nice colour, you don't want any grey fibres in

-there.

-You look to have lots of different ones on here,

-shall we have a look through those?

-They're all different types.

This looks more like a blonde wig, if you ask me, doesn't it?

What would this be used for? It's really kind of thick and dense.

This generally is used for mattresses.

OK. And that one of there looks totally different again,

it looks like it's shorn off a poodle or something.

This is in the luster category. This is some of the best wool.

Like the wool to...that you would knit with, or...?

-Yeah, yeah.

-So this we could knit with at some stage?

-Yes, absolutely.

How many different kind of grades are there, if you like?

There's roughly 80 different types that we would make at this depot.

-So any of those could come through here?

-Any of those could come

-through here, yeah.

-And tell me, have you found anything valuable in

-all this wool?

-My boss once had a wedding ring drop out.

-No way!

-And he sent it back and received a lovely letter of

-"thank you" from the farmer.

-I bet he was popular.

-Yes, he was very happy.

-Not every day throws up a Golden Fleece,

but interest in our home-grown wool is increasing.

Just over half of it goes into carpets, but demand from the fashion

industry is growing.

And that's putting some bounce back into

Bradford's once-thriving textile industry.

James Laxton and his forebears have been spinning yarn since 1907.

Your family will have seen a lot of changes,

a very different industry compared with today.

Very different. In this area alone, there were hundreds of spinners, and

it all disappeared in the mid to late '90s.

For what reason?

Man-made fibres and a lot of cheap imports.

As a result of that, wool fell out of fashion.

But it must have climbed back into fashion somehow, because you're in a

-brand-new factory here.

-Yeah, January 2010, we set up the first

new worsted spinning mill in this

country for at least a generation, and subsequently we outgrew our

original premises.

The business has been in this premises for two months and now it's

-set for the next 15 to 20 years.

-So what's changed, then?

British wool has become more popular.

With clever manufacturing and the right choice of British breed,

there is a lot that can be done with British wool.

Is the fashion industry creating demand?

The fashion industry aren't necessarily asking for more,

but we're presenting them with British wool and getting British

-wool back on the shelves.

-People might be surprised that British

wool, you know, animals that are out in the wind and the rain

-would then translate into a nice, soft jumper.

-Yeah, you'd be amazed.

The quality of some of the British wool out there

and the soft handle that we can achieve, you know,

some people do question whether it actually is British or not.

-But it is.

-It is.

-It is British.

-Yeah, and we can prove that.

LAUGHTER

After so many years of decline, it's heart-warming to see that our

woollen industry finally has something to bleat about.

And what with the autumn evenings drawing in and my rediscovered

knitting skills, I may be about to stoke up a mini woollen boom

-of my own.

-SHEEP BLEAT

After the long days of summer, when nature is at its busiest,

autumn can seem like an altogether quieter time of year.

But, in fact, many of our creatures put on some of their most

spectacular displays during the season, and we've gathered together

the top must-sees that you won't want to miss this autumn.

It's the time of year when red stags fight fierce battles for control of

the herd. STAGS BARK AND MOAN

Known as a rut, these dramatic and potentially lethal encounters are

truly incredible to behold.

You can see stags rutting at several spots across the country,

including the Isle of Arran, Exmoor, and Richmond Park in London.

Just make sure, though, that you stay well clear of those clashing

antlers. STAG ROARS

And now for a real autumn favourite, the red squirrel.

Although its grey cousin may have taken over most of the country,

it's still possible to see our native reds gathering food for

winter on Anglesey, the Isle of Wight, and right here in Cumbria.

Bees may be synonymous with summer,

but one breed, at least, likes to strut its stuff in autumn.

As the weather cools, ivy bees emerge to feed on flowering ivy.

Clusters of them then form tangerine-sized balls, as dozens of

males attempt to mate.

A seasonal display that's no less remarkable for being in miniature.

Now is the best time to watch Atlantic salmon swim and leap

upstream to their breeding grounds.

You're more likely to catch their gravity-defying displays in the

morning or evening, after a spell of wet weather.

You'll see them in rivers up and down the country, but some of the

most spectacular salmon leaping happens on the River Ribble

in Yorkshire, at Cenarth Falls in Pembrokeshire,

and at the Falls of Shin in the Highlands.

When it comes to symbols of the season,

nothing evokes autumn more than a

mighty horse chestnut laden with conkers.

And Naomi Wilkinson uncovered a curious tale of just how

destructive these childhood favourites can be.

Green, spiky orbs containing precious treasure.

Every year, the horse chestnut gives up its fruit.

But they don't lie abandoned for long.

We've been soaking them in vinegar,

baking them, and threading them on a string for generations.

Each autumn, children and adults alike battling it out

in a game of conkers.

But these tough nuts haven't just been used for childhood fun.

100 years ago, they were called upon for a far more serious battle.

It was 1915 and our country was at war.

The British Army was facing a crisis.

Continuous fierce fighting had led to a chronic shell shortage,

guns only firing as few as four shells a day.

To create firepower, the government needed a propellant, called cordite.

But a key ingredient, acetone, was in short supply.

So, step forward the conker.

They're loaded with starch,

which, when fermented, could produce the much-needed acetone.

So, how did they conjure up an explosive material from this autumnal fruit?

Dr Kristy Turner is a chemist from the University of Manchester.

-Hello, Kristy.

-Hello.

I'm loving this woodland science lab, very nice.

So, can you tell me, how did you go from one of these into something

used to fire shells and bullets?

So, in World War I, they did this by doing a fermentation process,

which is what we're going to show you here.

In the war, they used bacteria to do the fermentation but today, to make

it a bit easier, we're going to use yeast.

The bacteria and water would be added to the conkers and left

to ferment, enzymes getting to work to create the acetone.

Here's one we've already started.

So we're going to have to filter the solids from it.

Back in World War I,

the next step was to distil the acetone mixture to make it pure.

Only then would it be mixed with other explosive ingredients to make

the spaghetti-like strings of cordite.

But the grand ambition for conkers wasn't to be.

On the small lab scale that we have here, it works really,

really well but when they scaled it up to factory scale, it didn't work

too well and in the end they abandoned the process after about three months.

Conkers as a weapon of war may not have left a dent in the history

books but their traditional use as a tool for fun is as strong as ever.

And it's the tiny village of Southwick in Northamptonshire that

every autumn becomes a Mecca for those who are nuts about conkers.

For decades, the World Conker Championships has drawn competitors

from all over the globe to compete for the Conker Cup.

For the last 20 years,

Richard Howard has been chief umpire but his connection to conkers goes

back much further.

I'm nearly 75, I've been playing it all my life,

my father played it before me.

-Yeah!

-And in fact, my father and his family

used to actually collect conkers during the First World War.

Looks like I've picked the right guy for some tips, then.

What you do, you pull a conker... You don't have a choice of conker.

-Thank you.

-That one is fresh off the tree,

we gather them within the week leading up to conker day,

the World Conker Championships.

-How many do you collect?

-About 2,000, 2,500.

The rules are simple but strict.

Three hits each until the conker is knocked off and you'd better keep

your string at the right length.

It's got to be eight inches between the knuckle and the nut.

I hit myself on the head!

-Oh!

-See, I'm as bad.

-Careful, I've got to yellow card you.

-Oh!

Yellow card for Naomi.

Well, that's my conker career shattered.

Luckily, there are some people here who know what they're doing.

The humble conker has had an eventful history.

From a childhood pastime to a role in World War I.

And now, as this eccentric event shows,

they're still giving pleasure to people all over the world.

An autumn tradition that will hopefully never grow old.

Well, it's pretty hard to argue with that.

Everything in nature is driven by the seasons, ourselves included,

and nothing says autumn quite like the sight of harvest.

But there's one food beloved by generations of Brits, which isn't

actually grown in this country.

Margherita now lifts the lid on a surprising culinary tale.

For decades now, it's been a store cupboard staple,

a mainstay of the full English breakfast and the go-to grub for

cash-strapped students.

As British as fish and chips and Yorkshire pud, the good old baked bean.

But look closely

at some of the labelling and you'll see that none of these little

protein parcels are home-grown.

American, Canadian.

Where are our British beans?

Well, I'm hoping to get to the root of it with food supplier and

all-round British bean fan Josiah Meldrum.

The bean that we're all eating in our baked beans, what is it?

It's a bean called Phaseolus vulgaris, or the common bean,

that's the species.

If I just delve into my pocket, I have some here.

-OK.

-This particular variety of Phaseolus vulgaris, or common bean,

is called a navy bean and it's grown in North America and its brought

over to the UK and that's what becomes our baked bean.

Why did we Brits fall in love with it so much and when?

It may seem surprising now that we fell in love with it because it seemed so exotic.

Baked beans were invented in the United States and then we have

the Boston baked bean, which is often made with molasses or maple syrup

and has pork in it. And in the '20s and '30s some entrepreneurial American canners

brought them over to the UK and they were sold in really high-end shops.

These are the sorts of things you would buy in Fortnum & Mason or

Harrods and they were a premium product, these baked beans.

Wartime rationing meant that the more expensive ingredients like meat

disappeared from the recipe and by the mid-'40s,

the baked bean in red sauce was a cheap and cheerful British favourite.

So if we love it so much, why don't we grow it here?

Part of the reason is our climate.

Here we are on an autumn day and you can see it's overcast,

there is a threat of rain.

These beans need a long,

hot summer and a dry autumn and we don't get too many of those.

So the navy bean can't reliably manage here but there is another variety

that's been bred to cope better with the British climate and husband and

wife Tim and Sandra Gawthroup have been growing it in Hertfordshire for the past eight years.

These are the beans. The crops are yet to be harvested.

How is this bean different from the one that I would be eating in my

baked beans, that's been imported?

It's from the same family but the ones we import are white before

they're cooked and put into a baked bean with sauce.

These ones will be,

they will eventually go a deep red colour like a kidney bean.

So almost the red baked bean we might expect?

-I think some people would think...

-Without the tomato sauce!

Without the tomato sauce!

Which plant's ready to harvest?

Well, that one's still very much alive.

Before we harvest them, the plant needs basically to die,

to dry off and then as these pods dry, the beans become redder inside.

-Do you want me to show you one?

-Yeah, I'd love to see.

-There you are.

-Wow, that's quite a colour!

They will go a much darker red than that.

Can I eat these now?

No, definitely not. They would be...

They've got things in which them called lectins,

which actually would make you feel physically sick.

What are the obstacles you've come up against growing this bean here?

Obviously we're at the mercy of the climate and the weather and if it's

pouring with rain we can't harvest.

Plus the fact that there's a very limited number of things you can do

to control weeds in beans, so we do get people to come in

and hand rogue weeds out sometimes,

which is an expensive business.

-So a lot of work going into our beans on toast.

-There is.

And now that autumn's here,

the hard graft of harvesting is about to begin.

Most of it's done by Sandra's husband, Tim.

Sandra says you're the man that does all the hard work.

-Yes, I am indeed.

-How are we harvesting today?

Well, this is called rodding,

which is basically you're lifting the beans out of the soil to help dry them,

before we eventually combine harvest them.

And you originally, on your first crops coming through,

you got a bit of kit in from the States, I understand.

Yeah, we bought a piece of machinery

but since then, Tim's built this one in the workshop.

So how is this different?

We've made it much heavier because the soil that we're growing the beans on

is more compacted, so we've built a heavier machine to lift the beans more easily.

-And can I see how it works?

-You can indeed.

Once Tim's pulled the beans out with the rodder,

they're left on the ground to dry for a day or two, before the combine

harvester comes in.

Weather permitting, harvesting should take four or five days.

Getting British beans from field to fork is not a job for the faint-hearted.

Eight years of work, how are you both feeling at this point in time?

We're hopeful. There's lots of beans in the pods, which is a good thing.

They're all ripening nicely.

We just need the weather now for the final frontier.

So, fingers crossed I'll be eating my first British baked beans from your crop.

We really hope so!

Earlier, Jules revealed the shocking truth about Lyme disease.

But infections spread by ticks don't only affect us,

they can be just as dangerous for our dogs.

So, now best paw forward as Jules and his Labrador, Teddy, discover

how to keep man and dog safe outdoors.

Teddy and I love exploring the countryside.

It allows him time to stretch his legs,

have a good sniff around and generally, do what dogs do.

But in doing so, I am of course exposing him to the chance of being bitten by an infected tick.

So what, as pet owners, can we do to keep our dogs safe?

Come on, Teddy.

To find out, I'm meeting Professor of Zoology at the University of Bristol, Richard Wall.

Richard recently headed up the Big Tick project,

a study designed to map tick hot spots across the UK.

And some of his findings have been pretty startling.

Richard, it's clear that ticks are an issue out here in the countryside

but I think many people will be surprised to learn that, from your work,

they are also a problem in our urban parks as well.

They certainly can be. It depends very much on the type of park.

But if we have a park that has trees and long grass and particularly if

it has large animal hosts like deer, we certainly will get ticks.

You have gone to great lengths to study ticks in huge numbers.

Using that. What is it?

It's an extremely simple tool.

It's just a white piece of cloth on a bamboo pole.

And it's perfectly sufficient to fool the ticks

into thinking it is a passing animal.

As you drag it over the grass, the ticks grab hold.

We turn the cloth over, we can count the ticks.

-Well, shall we see how many you can find, Richard?

-I'll give it a go.

So, tell us a bit more about the Big Tick project.

We wanted to try and get a very large sample size of ticks.

We contacted lots and lots of veterinary surgeons and we got them to check dogs for us.

We had about 10,000 dogs examined as part of the survey.

And we were able to detect the various pathogens

that are circulating in ticks in the UK, fairly accurately.

Richard's research revealed that a third of the dogs studied were carrying ticks -

putting them and their owners at risk of catching Lyme disease.

Well, shall we have a look and see if you have managed to trawl anything?

But judging by our sheet-dragging experiment,

Teddy and I aren't in too much danger here today.

-Ah, there.

-No, lots of leaf-hoppers.

What's that? Is that it? The other black mark.

-There.

-No.

-Gosh, to the untrained eye...

I mean, they all look like ticks, don't they?

In the end, you start just seeing ticks everywhere.

JULES LAUGHS

Aha. Got one.

So we've got an adult female tick.

Gosh, there! Yeah, and you can see those legs...

-Yeah.

-Those nippers.

So those front legs waving around in front of it,

that's where it sits in the grass,

it waits for an animal to come past and that's when it's going to grab that animal.

They are beautiful, exquisite creatures.

-They really are.

-YOU think so!

Teddy and I aren't so convinced.

So are dogs more susceptible to Lyme disease than humans?

No, in terms of the Lyme disease itself,

they are slightly less susceptible than humans.

But because they are running through the undergrowth, lying,

as we have just seen, on the grass in deer paths and things,

they are just more likely to pick up ticks.

Now, we give Teddy a pill once every three months, which gets rid of ticks.

So I'm fairly confident about him today, being here.

But for anybody who hasn't treated their dog in the same way,

what should they be looking for?

The first thing is if you take your dog for a walk,

you should just check it for ticks when you get back.

And particularly places like the ears, quite common biting sites.

Around the head.

-Yeah.

-And then underneath the armpits.

-Yeah.

-And you can't just basically try and feel for them.

I mean, normally when they are swollen, you can feel them.

You can. It takes about 24 hours for the pathogens to go from the tick

into the dog. So if we can get that tick off as soon as possible,

we minimise the risk of disease in the dog.

And if in any doubt, go and talk to your vet.

But let's just say, for whatever reason, Teddy got a tick and he got

Lyme disease, what would be the symptoms that we're looking for?

Well, if you notice changes in behaviour,

if the animal is looking more lethargic, if it is off its food,

if it is not its normal lively self, then, take it to a vet straightaway,

explain that it's been in a tick-infested area and maybe it had a tick bite

and get the vet to check it out thoroughly.

Certainly, lethargy and being off his food is something we'd

definitely notice with Teddy.

There's no doubt that catching Lyme disease is a worrying prospect but

there are ways you can minimise your risk of getting it.

When you go out for a walk,

wear long trousers and always tuck them into your socks.

Opt for light colours.

They will show up ticks far better.

Spray your skin and clothes liberally with insect repellent and

when you get home, check thoroughly for ticks.

Well, sadly, there's no escaping the fact that ticks are a real issue.

And if you are unlucky enough to be bitten by one that happens to be

carrying Lyme disease, you should take immediate action.

Go and see your GP.

But on no account should you worry about coming out here and enjoying

the great British countryside.

As with everything else, when it comes to safety,

a bit of care and common sense will go an awfully long way.

Ready, Ted? Yeah, good boy. Come on.

One countryside danger we are fully aware of is posed by certain kinds

of wild mushroom and of course,

mushrooms are abundant in our woodlands at this time of year.

But with some experts claiming that mushrooms could have unexpected hidden powers,

maybe it's time to reassess the fungi at our feet.

Paul is on the trail of an unlikely story.

I'm a big fan of the humble mushroom and now that autumn's here,

fungus of all shapes and sizes is adding colour and texture,

not to mention a hint of mystery, to our woodlands.

But little did I know that these harbingers of the changing season

may actually have the kind of magical powers you would expect to find in a fairy tale.

I've come to the borders of Wiltshire and Somerset to meet

someone who believes mushrooms can help trees communicate.

I think I'm going to need some convincing.

Mycologist Michael Jordan is an expert in fungi.

So I'm hoping he can shed some light on rumours they are a kind of

broadband for trees.

Nicknamed the woodwide web.

On a damp, misty autumn day,

these woods look really magical, don't they?

Yeah, you can understand why, in days gone by, there were all kinds

of myths and legends associated with woodland.

Yeah, but it is a bit of a romantic myth, isn't it?

That trees talk to each other?

I mean, there is some kind of communication, something is happening.

There is a communication, yeah, no doubt about it.

But them actually sort of putting a canister into a tube like in the

department store and sending it round to accounts,

doesn't really work at all.

There is a communication channel between trees

and it's in the form of a fungus.

-Really?

-Yup. That's called a mycelium.

-OK.

-And that actually bonds with the roots of the trees and that

communicates from, in a way, from one tree to another.

But it's exchange of materials rather than information.

The fungus is critically important to the tree and in many ways,

the tree is equally important to the fungus.

Mycelium is incredibly delicate.

So it's not a great idea to go digging about for it.

The best way to see it is under the bark of a rotten log.

And it just looks like a sort of loose cotton wool.

-Yeah.

-And that is a mycelium.

So you've got some puffballs, look.

Which are a kind of fungi

and mycelium connects them all.

Wow! It's incredible, isn't it, really?

I mean, there's a whole ecosystem here that you are unaware of.

And this miniature ecosystem of puffballs linked by mycelium on the

surface, is replicated below ground.

Mycelium can extend several metres,

to connect the same species of mushroom across the forest floor.

And it's those fungi that we are on the hunt for now.

There is some of what we are talking about.

The Latin name for this is Trichoderma.

And what you have to appreciate is that these are purely the fruits.

They are like the apple on the tree.

What is going on under the ground, which you can't see,

is this extensive network,

this cotton wool-like network called the mycelium.

And that is what is extending way out beyond these fungi...

How does it actually feed off the tree?

The fungus actually forms a net around the very fine root tips of the tree

and it penetrates the cells of the root tips and this is where the

exchange takes place.

Fungus is drawing food from the tree,

which means that it doesn't have to start dissolving dead material

around itself, to generate its own food.

It can cash in on the food in the tree.

And the fungus in return, is providing the tree with water.

And one of the astonishing things about these is that the mycelium,

the network, can store something like ten times the amount of water as a 60-foot beech tree,

so in the times of shortage, the tree can cash in on the fungus.

The fungus can also assimilate things like phosphates,

which the tree finds much more difficult to produce.

Brilliant. Living in harmony.

They need each other. So your advice would be, if you are walking in a

wood like this and you come across mushrooms like that, leave well alone.

Don't pick them because you will ruin the whole of the mycelium network.

Yeah, I mean, there's been a huge expansion of people picking mushrooms to eat.

And actually, it does damage in two ways.

One, it reduces the chance of the mushroom spreading itself by spores...

-Yeah.

-..but also, you put a pair of size tens,

whack them down over and over on the same soil,

it will compact it and it will destroy the mycelium.

So, leave well alone.

-If you want mushrooms, grow your own, basically.

-Yes.

The wild-foodie lobby might not approve but that is really the message,

leave them alone, when they are in the woods.

Well, I'm all for keeping our autumn woods just as nature intended.

Last year, I had a go at growing mushrooms from a kit.

But this year, I'm trying something a little more ambitious, with a log like this.

I'm using it to grow fungi from wooden plugs infused with

shiitake mushrooms.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to drill a hole in here, with this

drillbit, which suits that size plug,

insert that into the log and seal it over and then these plugs will

inoculate this log and hopefully, give me some shiitake mushrooms.

I hope it works.

If you fancy having a go at this yourself,

make sure you use a fresh log from a thick-bark deciduous tree.

The resin of some conifers is actually antifungal.

So best avoided.

The mushrooms are going to love this.

Also, check for damaged bark before you get started and lastly,

never use a piece of wood that's already got mushrooms growing on it.

Well, that looks OK. There's about 12 plugs in this little log.

All I've got to do now is seal them in.

And for that, I'm using some melted wax.

And what this does... is it stops them from drying out.

That should harden off pretty quickly.

And now it's just a matter of bagging it up

and putting it somewhere cool and damp, like a garden shed.

So, hopefully in a couple of weeks' time,

I'll have a lovely crop of shiitake mushrooms to try.

And I cannot wait.

And on that bountiful note,

it's time to say goodbye - but please do join us again for more Countryfile Diaries tomorrow.

When Keeley will be uncovering Britain's deadliest garden.

It's called Ricinus communis.

-Ah, ricin, poison.

-Ricin.

-The deadliest poison known to man.

-Really?

And the arrival of new piglets at Paul's smallholding...

There you go. You are getting little grunts there. That means they are happy.

..inspires him to discover if hogs are as smart

as dogs at the pig Olympics.

OK, through here, come on. No, we missed that one.

Over the... Over the...

Come on, come on. No, no, no.

And I'll be finding out what's been making our country roads so dangerous.

Until then, goodbye.