19/08/2025
A thought on the arrival of Autumn…
It's starting to feel decidedly autumnal, in fact it has for quite a while and the feeling just grows with each day.
I can never quite say if any one thing makes me decide that Autumn has arrived each year but it is so much more than just a date. And yet the date of that first feeling lodges each year. Last year 17th August. This year 27th July. It's getting earlier with every year.
Is it the plants that tell me when?
The trees are certainly turning colour earlier this year, and the apples, blackberries and plums too.
It might be the birds, they aren't singing as much in the mornings, there are fledglings everywhere and even more telling the swallows are doing practice flights and finches are gathering in flocks ready for winter.
Is it the weather or temperature? Well this year it's unusually warm and dry and many would argue that makes it feel more like summer. Not for me however, as we have the morning dew that wets my feet in the meadow when I walk early, and the cool breeze that feels different in the late evenings. A crispness to the air that feels different, even in the hot, humid nights that we have had of late.
Is it perhaps a blend of our senses? The sight of the colours, the sounds of the birds and the feelings of dew? Perhaps yes. But I also wonder, if Autumn is signalled deep within us. That some part of us, that many of us are no longer in tune with or choose to ignore amidst our busy lives, tells us Autumn is coming. A sense that lost its relevance and that we humans somehow forgot exists. Once, our ancestors would have prepared for Winter just like the plants and animals around us. I feel that is what I'm sensing too, a deep sense of change. I love the Autumn, it doesn't fill me with the threat of starvation or cold, and for that I feel blessed. I can drink in the autumn warmth for what it is, watch the birds and bees prepare, treasure the changes in my routines and ponder questions like this...
