Welcoming the Autumn

It's arrived hasn't it?  It's well and truly here.  Our front garden is littered with the leaves from our lime tree.  We squelch through the moulded grapes and decaying brown vine leaves in the garden.  The remaining tomatoes, still green on the vine, are heading for my chutney pan at this rate.  A few are still ripening on the window sill but...  It's Autumn isn't it?

I don't want to sound down about this because I love autumn.  Those first hazzy mornings are lovely.  The freshness in the air on our dog walks up on the fields makes you breath in deeply and thank your lucky stars for living here.  It's beautiful.  And as all around you dies, or falls asleep, it makes you glad to be alive.  I love autumn colours; the low golden light; the last blackberries.   There are things that you see more sharply in the autumn; like the mushrooms that appear all over the woodland and how rich and green the moss looks when all around starts to turn brown.

This Autumn is a little bittersweet for me as Little Louis Fox has started school full-time.  I am so happy for him, and he is already settling in with his new teacher and happy to be with so many friends that he already knows from nursery.  I am not going to be one of those mother's who feels redundant now that both my children are in school, makes jokes about "having another one..." and starts manically re-decorating.  But I do miss him.  I really do.

And, as our ceiling fell down in the back room last month there is a certain amount of re-decorating going on Chez Fox. Hee, hee!

Now they are both in school full-time it makes the weekends all the more special.  We are all together and meals are noisy and messy, and we visit and host our friends; the devastation that ensues is no better or worse than before but the clean up on Monday is a little more lonely.  (Yes I do indeed leave my housework until Monday morning!)

Last weekend we went for a walk in the woods, to one of my favourite places; Trent Park in Enfield, where I used to go with my parents, aunts and cousins when I was growing up.  The children had a great time building a bivy and we were hard pressed to coax them out of it, even after a good hour of mucky play.

And that's what is wonderful about autumn isn't it.  Before you get a chance to be tired of the chill, and the wet, and the mud, there is autumn.  All the positives of the chill - big warm coats, wet - wellies, yay! and mud - erm... (you'll have to ask the little foxes exactly what the positive of that one is) are here to be enjoyed.  

So, welcome autumn, nice to see you too, xxx.