Saying Goodbye to Summer

I have to admit, that after a summer in south west France, I have been struggling to settle back into Peak District life. We returned to grey, wet and cold - hardly the golden Septembers we all yearn for. For this can be such a lovely time of year as the days slowly shorten and the shadows lengthen, while all around is bathed in burnished light…

Not so this year. Our English summer has run true to its worst form: some early heat in late May and June and then a slow slide into sogginess throughout July and most of August, and now a soggy September too, it seems. 

We have been lucky to escape since August through to mid September, but I have found it especially difficult this year to adjust to the dull greys and greens of northwest England after the dazzling blues and golds of summer by a southerly sea. It is not just light behind the retina, it is also the warmth in the bones that I miss. Time effortlessly spent outside, being warmed by the sun and cooled by a salty sea. A life ‘al fresco’ with your feet in the sand and your body washed by those glorious aquamarine Atlantic waters; convivial meals in the warm night air and mornings filled with the hope of a bright new day. All of this would be so much easier to give up if we had an Indian summer to come home to, or if we had had a less disastrously wet July, denying us the undisputed joys of a good English summer.

This last couple of weeks of planetary activity, of geomagnetic storms and Autumn Equinox has certainly not helped the more sensitive amongst us to feel settled, but bit by bit, day by day, I am getting there. As September passes into October this weekend, I feel that this strange period of limbo - between the turbulent end of summer and the beginning of true Autumn - is finally coming to an end. Soon we will be in the right season to feel chilly outside, and to want to warm ourselves by the heat of a roaring fire; we will watch the leaves of the trees, still green now, turn to the reds, browns, oranges and yellows of Autumn which we all love so much. We will see the mists rising in the mornings o’er land and lakes, and our breath condensing in front of us as we kick through fallen leaves and splash through muddy puddles. It is the time of year to prepare for hibernation: to gather the fruits of summer and turn them into preserved delights for the winter months; to clasp one’s cold hands around a warm mug of tea after a day of clearing leaves in the garden; to tidy away one’s outside life and to re-adjust to a life indoors…

,