To Autumn...

Let any, who will, still bask in the south

On the paradisal sand,

It's northerly here - and this year of the north

Autumn will be my friend.

 (From Let any, who will, still bask in the south by Elizabeth Akhmatova)

Ah Autumn, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways...  I saw a post about how Autumn was her favourite season on Jag's Fitness Blog and couldn't agree with her more.  So here are some of the reasons why it's my favourite too.

I love how wonderful it is for photography, we still get blue sky but the sun is lower, the light less harsh and the shadows are softer.  Then of course there are the colours: leaves of breathtaking golds, coppers and crimsons, scarlet and purple berries, and vibrant flowers like sedums, rudbeckias and chrysanthemums. 

I like walking on a leafy carpet in woods and seeing horse chestnuts ready to fall, and pinecones and acorns, and squirrels hurrying about their business.  I like the stubble stretching away across the fields.  I love misty mornings when everything is hung with dew, and there is a crispness in the air that foretells of colder days to come.  I like the way that salads disappear in favour of comfort-food, and the fact that the children go back to school so I can walk around the park at lunchtime in relative peace.   I like the fact that summer dresses can be put away and scarves and hats and jackets in rich colours brought out.  I like the way that wonderfully orange pumpkins appear in the shops and make me want to carve a halloween lantern. 

I like it all so much that I have two weeks holiday booked for the beginning of October; I really like that... 

And after a mention of Akhmatova and Barrett-Browning, how could I talk about Autumn without quoting Keats in the same post?

Cue misty images...

And let's not forget

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun

(Oh those colours!)

Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;