Fur coats and bikinis...

It must be autumn!

Oct 01, 2023

“Once in a while i am struck
all over again... by just how blue
the sky appears .. on wind-played
autumn mornings, blue enough

to bruise a heart.”
― Sanober Khan

September in all its gloriousness!

Hello lovely readers, welcome to the September issue of Colours of the Month

This is where I add my favourite photos taken in the last thirty - give or take a few - days, the month of September was less clicked this year due to so many unforeseen busy hours. I gathered enough through the harvest though…

If you missed last months you can nip back here or click the link at the bottom of the page..

But before you begin…

In words - the smoke…

September often marks the end of summer days, when the veil of autumns arrival becomes so heavy it can hold the weight no more. Tumbling mist from seemingly nowhere conjures myriad coloured cool air to envelope not only the landscape and the trees and the skies but every single one of our own senses too. The season that finds our pockets filled with acorns and walnuts, and our baskets with apples, chestnuts, haw berries and mushrooms. The season that touches every sense with more than a little extraordinary for all to enjoy.

Perhaps, a deliberate ploy on the part of nature to enable the feeling to be carried within us through to spring?

And now for the colour - the flames…

“While the blooms
were singing the success songs of Summer ;
quietly 'October' arrived.
― Monika Ajay Kaul

I am a lover of Autumn…

I am a lover of dusks that make trees look like they’re smiling.

I am a lover of the way that place under their branches turns into a tapestry of burnt umber — Of the trillions of leaves as they fall, gently caressing and replenishing the earth.

I am a lover of bountiful harvest, the nuts and berries that feed living creatures whether large or small, through winters sparse, stark days.

I am a lover of summer flora in faded costumes with next years blooms sewn into their lace.

I am a lover of earthy scent filling every tiny pocket of trembling air as mushrooms and fungi adorn the woodland floor.

I am a lover of laying down on soft green moss, warmed by the sun of an Indian summer and gazing up through the trees to watch the jackdaws squabbling.

I am a lover of apples and cinnamon,1pumpkins, the heady scent of plums becoming prunes in the dryer and the plump chestnuts beginning to fall as they ripen.

I am a lover of cool mornings, when the hill is drowning in waves of mist and my home is floating above. When angels fall through every branch only to disappear as they touch the dew heavy earth below.

I am a lover of the giant pearl that rolls along the top of the hill and hangs in the sky, the pearl that throws shadows onto my bed, so bright I can’t sleep.

I am a lover of freshly ploughed fields and that inimitable urge to shuffle my feet in fallen beech leaves whilst walking through forests of rustling russets.

I am a lover of returning as dusk falls to hot chocolate in front of a crackling fire…

I am a lover of the way Autumn has a cheeky habit of wrapping one in its friskiness with no prior warning. One day we are basking in sunshine in as few clothes as possible soaking up the last vestiges of warmth from summer and the next the air is scented by woodsmoke and roast chestnuts.

I am a lover of fur coat and bikini weather….

And, I love this phrase, not that I actually wear a fur coat of course, or a bikini for that matter, quelle horreur! It does sum up the continual too hot - too cold scenario of the season so well though.

For every day that falls behind me, I dream of having two more to replace it, just to make enough for what’s left of my lifetime to enable me to leave knowing and feeling every fascinating and extraordinary detail of the seasons rituals. SLM

A hill and I

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