Monday 3 September 2012

Autumn Pleasures


Source for this image here - if you are visiting the link today, on the 3rd September, you will see on the main Wikimedia page that the "Photo For Today" is of a place that is very dear to my heart and Papa Bear's too - it is the very village in Italy where our mothers were born!

(We are having some problems at the moment with our internet connection, which is making it difficult for me to write posts just now - so don't worry if we don't appear with our usual regular daily post while we are working out how to make the connection better!  We are still here - just not connected!   That being said, as I type it seems to be OK ... but it might not last the whole post!)

Yesterday as we ate our delicious evening meal of hamburger pie (from my sixth and very latest Gooseberry Patch book - Papa Bear ordered it with the others, but it arrived late, and he gave it to me on Saturday!  What a lovely treat - it really cheered me up whilse I was feeling sorry for myself with my bad cold, which is a little better today) we talked about how quickly the seasons seem to have blended from summer into autumn without us really even noticing.  Of course, it is still very early autumn, and in the middle of the day when the sun is shining brightly, it does still feel almost like high summer - but not quite.  The light has a different quality to it now, and the air feels different too.  Hazy, and somehow softer.  The mornings and evenings are definitely different - much cooler, and the sunrises and sunsets are spectacular, nothing like the ones we see in summer.   It gets dark much sooner in the evening, although we have more than a month yet before the clocks go back, and in the morning, it isn't light now until about 6.  The birdsong has changed too, and there is a beautiful, fresh scent in the air when we go outside for a walk.  All around, there are small changes - clues that autumn is most definitely here - and so suddenly!  We all talked about how much we like autumn though - because it brings so many lovely things to enjoy!


Here is a list of some of the Bear Family's favourite "autumn things to enjoy" ...
  • The scent of woodsmoke (a smell that for Papa Bear and I reminds us of our childhoods in the country)
  • The sound of blackbirds singing
  • Bonfire supper, eaten while we watch the fireworks out of our living room window (I will write another post about Bonfire Night, closer to the day)
  • Making the Christmas cake and smelling it cooking
  • Cutting wood for Grandmama Bear's woodstoves (Cubby Bear loves getting to use the chainsaw to do this!) ...
  • ... and raking the leaves from her lawns
  • The first frost of the season, decorating everything outside with shimmering silver dust
  • Apples, plums, brambles, pumpkins and sweet potatoes - and all the delicious things you can bake with them
  • Making cinder taffy and gingerbread cookies
  • Harvest festival at Church
  • Getting home from work early!
  • Planning for Christmas
  • Getting soaked in the rain - and then getting home and warming up with a mug of hot tea and a piece of apple cake
  • Birthday parties!
  • Spiced candles brightening the kitchen on a gloomy day
  • Being able to wear slippers without getting too hot
  • Football!
There were lots more - but that's for another day!



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