Forever Autumn?

No thanks, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy it while it’s here. Officially, that’s not till the first of September if you believe the Meteorological Office, which I tend to. I celebrate the solstices too, even though they tend to bring stormy weather with them, but there’s something about this time of year that makes me think of snuggling up with hot chocolate, whipped cream and cocoa sprinkled on top. Of welcoming being back in jeans, and gloating a little because they’re looser than when I put them away back in May. I guess it was because it’s been too hot to want to eat a lot of the time this summer, but it gives me room to indulge myself now.

Don’t get me wrong. That’s been great too, but I’m ready to change. I miss sunrise coming to greet me while I come downstairs, but I’ll soon be in candle season, and this summer’s Prime sale let me swap all the battery-operated ones for rechargeable ones, which are so much easier to charge. I know that because the first batch are doing it now, while the little nightlight ones glow in the corner as I say to the world, ‘Hah! If you won’t give me light, then I’ll make my own.’

I’ve been doing that in our room too as I set up my little cosy sewing corner, then decided that there were times when I’d want to sit on the bed with my knees and hips supported and escape into the luxury that is cross stitch. I haven’t done it for more than a quarter of a century because I didn’t have time. Now I have, and it seems to be happily taking over the corners when I’d have browsed the internet or looked at the news. It’s even more satisfying than it used to be because I thought it was gone forever, but it’s back with only a few small adaptations, including magnifying glasses and a nice bright light that clips onto the bed frame. Seriously, if you ever need to interrogate someone, then I’m your go to person because I’ve got loads of bright light and I can stab someone hundreds of times with a sharp needle.

Obviously I’ve never done anything like that, and I’m less likely to now because this helps to calm me. I’m working on ‘autumn’ from the four seasons at the moment, and finishing a quilt top that I abandoned three times. I can tell you exactly why I did that, but this time I am definitely going to finish it before I switch to embroidery for a while. I’ve got a plan, you see, to have a display of them in the same size hoops and frames and then change them round to match the seasons. Which, of course, meant spending my birthday money on a series of kits. I discovered that Temu sell some very good ones, so I now have a basket of them, and one of my jobs when the weather closes in will be to sort them into seasons. Or I may just gloat over happy, peaceful times to come.

I like decorating seasonally, and I like puttering, so I change coasters and fleeces and have strings of little seasonal lights. My daughter gets this. My husband and son don’t, but they do like it when the house looks nice, and I’m finding things to celebrate. Right now, it’s being cool enough to cook things that don’t take the minimal possible time. To go through my collection of bread cookbooks (as opposed to my collections of cake, biscuits, cookies, scones and puddings books) To get back into my routine of picking one recipe a week I’ve never done before. To do roast dinners again. To jump in fallen leaves. To go for a walk in the rain. To see the world greening up again. I can’t say I’ve got that far yet, but we’ve got a Bank Holiday weekend next weekend which, for my non-British friends, means Monday off, and it will rain just like it has as far back as I can remember. It’s as if it’s saying ‘hey suckers, summer’s over.’ And that takes me back to where I came in. Summer’s almost gone, but autumn is coming, and this year I’m definitely going to write an autumn Amy.

So I hope you have fun as your seasons change. Maybe winter is just losing its grasp for you. If so, then I hope you have an amazing spring. I love spring too. In fact, I love being alive in what’s a far more wonderful world when I remember to ignore the news apart from a quick check in the morning and evening just to make sure the world hasn’t ended. I sew instead. Or cook. Or read. Or play house, which is odd since I hated dolls houses when I was a child. I think it’s the result I love, especially when it’s time to snuggle…

PS, I think I’ve given myself an earworm. I loved Justin Hayward singing Forever Autumn from the War of the Worlds by Jeff Wayne when I was a teenager. I’m older, and hopefully wiser now, so I avoid depressing music too. Instead, I’ve got a playlist of music from a Paris cafe on, so I’m thinking of fresh croissants and crispy bread and a recipe I want to make for rolls to go with beef burgers and onion rings for lunch. After that, I shall go to visit Paris via YouTube and realise yet again that the simple pleasures suit me far better than massive events. Why not come and join me in your imagination? We can have croissants together…


And today’s picture is last September by the sea, because soon the schools will go back and it’ll be cool enough to enjoy walking. I’m excited about that too.