Autumn

I love summer time, I love the heat and playing in the water, long walks on the beach, days in the park, I just love it all. I could quite comfortably say that summer is my favourite time of year, I dread cold and live for when it starts to heat up again. I can also state emphatically that winter is my least favourite and it is only the hope of the warmer months that gets me through those cold dreary months. Having said that, there is something about autumn that makes the dip in temperature worth it.

I do love reaching into the closet and pulling out the knit sweaters, the array of colours the trees show off during the season and the sound of crunching leaves under your feet. I felt for the last several years that fall was far too short, certainly disproportionate to the unfair length of winter. In fact I had started to feel like we only enjoyed a couple of days of leaf changing fall time before they were all on the ground, and the day after that covered in snow. Perhaps an unjust description but I desired far more autumn than I got, so I was happy to arrive in a place where I am told that it can last weeks and weeks. Helped I suppose by the fact that they don't really get winter, at least not the way I am used to.

I have been marvelling at the changing season for a couple weeks now, continuing my daily walks despite the locals insisting that it is so chilly out. I have happily watched as the leaves have slowly converted to vibrant yellow, orange and red shades and then hang onto to the trees long enough to be enjoyed in their splendour. 

Hoping that the kids would revel in a little fall learning we went back to Coate Water Park on Saturday to play in the outdoors. I felt that walking with a nip on our cheeks, the sound of rustling turning leaves, and crunching beneath our feet couldn't help but lift our spirits and  remind us how lucky we are to live here. Admittedly I probably should have ended the adventure before I did but for the most part they were good sports even allowing me to take pictures of them playing with the foliage.

So I might be a convert, still not a winter person, of this I am sure, but maybe, just maybe autumn is in fact my favourite season, and as there are still many leaves of all different colours hanging onto the trees I am hopeful I still have much more to enjoy.