Day 14: Autumn Beauty

I've been very lax on my blogging the last few weeks. There are a lot of reasons, but the short version is that I set it aside for a time so that I wasn't overwhelmed and overdoing.  But now I'm settling back in to Scotland (having been to Cyprus for a few weeks), and it's time to get back into the good routines.

Today I walked to the Airdrie town centre and saw autumn leaves lying about, with the trees both full of and shedding them at the same time.  It's lovely to go away in one season and come back for another - really makes you aware of the passing of time.  I left Scotland in "summer", which for us could mean anything from rain, fog, wind, hail, and mist through to sunshine, warm weather, and pleasant breezes.  And I came back to a slight chill in the air and the leaves changing colour and lying scattered about in a haze of gold on the streets.

There's such beauty in the seasons.  It's hard for me to choose the one I love best.  But if pressed, I must say autumn.  I love the drastic change from summer - you go out one morning and suddenly need a coat, a scarf, gloves in your pockets.  The air has a nip to it, and the leaves are no longer green but are brilliant reds, golds, oranges - like a thousand miniature sunsets.  Autumn is so generous - the crisp, glorious leaves lie about in piles everywhere.  When it's dry, you can go crunching through them to your heart's content, or have them fall upon you from above as you're walking, with no messiness or cleaning up to do (at least of your person - if you have a garden you'll need to be cleaning leaves for many days!).  It's generous with wind, too - no longer the slight, pleasant breezes of summer: now the wind is released from its storehouses and goes whipping around in great enthusiasm, encouraging everyone to wake up and take notice.  It stirs the leaves up in little flurries everywhere - like excited children dancing about the streets, whirling this way and then that way, going crazy in exuberance as though suddenly set free after months of hanging on the edge of the tree branch. The chill air brings a liveliness to your cheeks, and even breathing it in makes you feel sharply alive.  Autumn doesn't allow you to be lazy, or weary, or sleepy.  It wakes you up, startles you, shakes the boredom out and flings you into a world that demands to be noticed - either in the glorious autumn colours, or in the wildness of the weather.

Either way, there is great beauty in this season, and we're on the cusp of it today.  Bring it on!