So August fades wearily into history and takes with it the last tired vestiges of summer as the year declines from middle age to senior citizenship. Already there is an autumnal feel in the air. The bitter-sweet flavour of September brings with it russet leaves, dewy mornings and early mists hovering above the fields and waterways. And my heart is melancholy. For I am a summer animal. I love the long lazy days with their balmy evenings and late sunsets. I dip into gloom once the nights draw in and the trees become stark skeletons against grey leaden skies.
As September and October give way to November, I will retreat into my shell and long for the warmth of the sun on my face and a time when the weather again suits the clothes I want to wear. It won’t be long before I an zipping the thermal lining into my motorcycle over-suit and digging out my winter gloves – not to mention switching on the heated grips and vest.
What we have to look forward to is ice, snow, cold biting rain and deary winter skies. So, as September lingers like the sweet after-taste of summer, I’ll make the most of its warm afternoons and comfortable colours before the winter starts in earnest. September mornings really do make me feel that way.
How beautifully and poetically put, I noted just 3 nights ago how much earlier the nights are drawing in.
I love Autumn it is my favourite time of year, you still get the occasional warm sun but without the dreaded muggy sweaty heat of Summer (i dread summer as there are only so many clothes I can remove before the whaling fleet arrive to harpoon me), I love the clear crisp mornings and the colours of the leaves as they change, I am always to be found out and about with my camera at this time of year.
It suits me, funny really as I am a june baby 😉
The onset of Autumn always makes me feel happier and more contented, even more so this year with a real open fire in our new home to enjoy come the bitter cold of a midlands winter.
This will be our first home as a proper family and we are excited and can’t wait to have some space and a garden to enjoy.
Roll out the red carpet for Autumn.
Oh, I have no problem shedding clothes in high summer. I’ll happily walk about in T shirt, shorts and sandals and be perfectly happy. I don’t ride the bike like that, though. Autumn is bitter-sweet for me. I enjoy the changing season with its rich colours and the crisp mornings, but I hate with a vengeance winter and it is the onset of winter that autumn portends that sends me into the melancholy blues.
You’re definitely not alone, though you put it more eloquently than most of us. The drawing-in nights are horribly apparent and British Gas have just requested a meter reading which brings to mind thoughts of the horrible costs to come. And Reynaud’s disease is no fun either, particularly when coupled with car maintenance.
At least there’s some consolation in the fact that this year we did manage to have a summer, if a little bit late starting!
I hate the cold and worse, the fact that the snow and ice impedes my ability to go about my business. There is nothing to commend wither to me – especially when the clocks go back and the darkness falls at about four in the afternoon. A gloomy, miserable season.
Many animals have the right answer:- off to bed in October with the alarm clock set for April…
Oh, if only…
I second Kath’s point about your poetic language. Very surprising from a usually hard-nosed you. It was a pleasure to read.
Oh, I can do poetic when the muse takes me.
I would like to third your poetry, but I have to disagree with your sentiment. Winter, dark and cold is my time. Crisp snow, moonlit, with icicles hanging from my lid, rich with the promises of solitude and peace.
I am a motorcyclist. There is nothing beautiful about snow. it is deadly, dangerous and a bloody nuisance. I hate it with a vengeance.
Also very poetic Diesel.
I love winter too , it’s really only summer i’m not too keen on.
LR seems to have brought out the poet in all of us today 😀
Well done him.
Got a lot of packing to do over the next 2 days *sigh*
Still it will all be worth it in the end.
I’ve been writing poetry since I was a child. My form teacher recognised it in me even if I didn’t at the time.
One of my latests efforts:
I gaze up into the deep purple sky;
Seeking the pole star to steer me by.
Light is the trade wind that fills the sails this night;
Phosphorus wake reflecting the pale moonlight.
After the crashing waves of the violent storm;
Serene calm fills the twilight before dawn.
Many leagues hence my journey may take me still;
But the journey is where I sup of my life’s sweet fill.
I have what I need – a ship to sail the seven seas;
A heart that is calm as the westerly breeze.
And I think of you, my love, on this breaking morn;
For without you I’d not have been reborn.
“He no longer minded the snow & the hail & the cold, for he knew that Winter was but Spring, sleeping.”
In the winter, far beneath the bitter snow, lies a seed that with the sun’s love in the spring, becomes the rose.
I’m with Diesel on this one. Much as I’ve enjoyed the lovely summer we’ve had, winter is really my time. I’ve always wondered why summer-lovers always go on so much about the “lovely long summer evenings” when I think that the evenings fly past because they’re so light. You think it’s only just past tea-time, because it’s only been properly dark for a while and then you look at the clock and – hey presto! – it’s nearly 11 o’clock and it’s time to start thinking about bed (if it’s a work day). In winter, on the other hand, you get home and think you’ve been in all evening and that it’s nearly over and then you look at the clock and – hooray! – it’s only about seven. The whole evening is still ahead of you!
And, oh, the delight of stepping into one’s warm, cosy house and closing the door on the rain and cold outside and “digging in” for the night without the feeling that the sun is still shining and one “should” be outside “enjoying it” – whether one is actually enjoying it or not! If it wasn’t for all the ghastly artificial rigours of Christmas, winter would be perfect!
The problem with winter is the cold. I cannot get warm – despite wrapping up. I need the daylight and warmth to flourish. Indeed, I become very depressed during the dark winter evenings.
The issue about long evenings has never occurred to me as I just enjoy the time as it passes. For me, being able to enjoy the garden on a balmy summer evening even after dusk is a delight. I suspect this issue has more to do with your internal clock than the season itself.
As for Christmas – this is, without doubt, the most ghastly season of the year – closely followed by Halloween and Fireworks night. Tacky, over commercialised and full of false bonhomie. I hate it utterly and completely.