All Change

A step forward into Autumn. Summer left suddenly behind.
Trees weighed down with fruit and evenings drawing down closer and closer.

The neighbours' Pear tree

A bough broke on my parent's apple tree from the sheer weight of its bounty. The leaves of the Sycamore outside my window are beginning to rust. It is time to prepare for the colder weather, still on the horizon, but just palpable in the cooling breeze that rustles through the weary branches.

Pears from the neighbours' tree

Autumn is always a time of new beginnings for me. There are new notebooks sitting on my desk. Empty pages awaiting my nervous first marks. Later they'll be filled with non-consecutive scrawls and scribbles, but for now they are pristine. It reminds me of going back to school.

And, yes, I am always learning. Today I am learning about Heather. I am taking part in the bioregional swap over on this wonderful blog. (I'm sure there is still time to join in.) I am planning and gathering and making and trying hard to compile a worthy representation of my environment to wrap up in paper and post far, far away.

Even though it is now, so certainly, Autumn...there is still time... just a little time... for one last fling. One last hurrah for Summer. A great big PICNIC! Some time to dance outdoors and eat and drink and look and see and cheer and sing and whoop and call goodbye to Summer at the top of our voices.... and then halloo hello to long-known, but almost forgotten, thoughts of future fires and warm woolens and time spent indoors with cosy lovlies.