AUTUMN

 An English Country Lane In Autumn

Now the nights are drawing in, the leaves are falling from the trees, and summer is just a distant memory, our thoughts can turn to Autumn. In the UK the first day of Autumn falls in September and runs through to December. Autumn is well and truly with us here in the UK. It is probably my favourite time of the year. Autumn marks the transition from summer into winter when the arrival of night becomes noticeably earlier and chilier. The possibilities of summer are gone, and the chill of winter is on the horizon. Skies turn grey, and many people turn inward, both physically and mentally. But for me when the colder weather arrives I love to cuddle up in front of the tv with a good book and my faithful pink socks, dog and cat by my side, heating on, pull down the blinds and close the curtains blocking out the world until the next day arrives.

Autumn in poetry has often been associated with melancholy.

Rainer Maria Rilke, a German poet, has expressed such sentiments in one of his most famous poems, Herbsttag (Autumn Day), which reads

Who now has no house, will not build one (anymore).

Who now is alone, will remain so for long,

will wake, and read, and write long letters

and back and forth on the boulevards

will restlessly wander, while the leaves blow.

Similar examples may be found in Irish poet William Butler Yeats' poem The Wild Swans at Coole where the maturing season that the poet observes symbolically represents his own aging self. Like the natural world that he observes he too has reached his prime and now must look forward to the inevitability of old age and death. French poet Paul Verlaines's "Chanson d'automne" ("Autumn Song") is likewise characterized by strong, painful feelings of sorrow. Keats' To Autumn, written in September 1819, echoes this sense of melancholic reflection, but also emphasises the lush abundance of the season.

Illustration For "To Autumn" by W J Neatby

Other things associated with Autumn are the “Harvest” the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. The harvest marks the end of the growing season, or the growing cycle for a particular crop, and this is the focus of seasonal celebrations of many religions,“Thanksgiving” US, and the Jewish Sukkot holiday with its roots as a full moon harvest festival of "tabernacles". There are also the many North American Indian festivals tied to harvest of autumnally ripe foods gathered in the wild, the Chinese Mid-Autumn or Moon festival and many others. The predominant mood of these autumnal celebrations is a gladness for the fruits of the earth mixed with a certain melancholy linked to the imminent arrival of harsh weather.

In Western cultures, personifications of autumn are usually pretty, well-fed females adorned with fruits, vegetables and grains that ripen at this time. Most ancient cultures featured autumnal celebrations of the harvest, often the most important on their calendars.

Personification of Autumn

Autumn is also associated with the “Halloween” season. Halloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian holiday All Saints' Day but is today largely a secular celebration.

Common Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, wearing costumes and attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, ghost tours, bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, committing pranks, telling ghost stories or other frightening tales, and watching horror films.

Halloween

A Jack-O'-Lantern

Autumn leaf colour is a phenomenon that affects the normally green leaves of many deciduous trees and shrubs by which they take on during a few weeks in the Autumn season, one or many colours that range from red to yellow making this a particularly colourful time of the year. It is also a good time for collecting some free natural resources for the kid's nature tables - different types of leaves, big ones, small ones - yellow, brown and green, Conkers and conker shells (Horse Chestnuts), Fir cones (these also make great Christmas decorations when you have finished with them) and bits of twig. Why not take the kids' on a nature walk to experience Autumn for themselves. They can help collect the leaves and cones. There is nothing quite like kicking your way through a pile of fallen leaves on a dry, crisp Autumn day.

Cherry Tree In Autumn

Oak Tree In Autumn

Ahhh… I do love this time of the year

Warmest Wishes

Katie