The approach of Autumn

Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

The season of mists and mellow fruitfulness from John Keats' poem To Autumn which he composed after taking a walk near Winchester one autumnal evening, a city not very far from where I live. The first stanza of his poem (above) describes early Autumn where the fruits are ripening and the buds still opening in the warm weather. 


On our recent walks there is evidence everywhere of the end of Summer and approaching Autumn, even though the heat of Summer is still with us on occasions.

From the cold misty mornings ...

To fields that have been harvested of their crops ...

To the fruits ripening and what a good year it seems to be for berries, I think the birds are going to have plenty to keep them from going hungry come the Winter ...

and there are signs that the leaves are beginning to turn from green to their beautiful Autumnal shades ...

I have mixed feelings about Autumn - I love to see the Autumn colours emerging and admire the beauty of an Autumnal landscape but don't like the darker evenings. I like the fact that at the moment we are still getting lovely warm days (sometimes), even though the mornings and evenings are decidedly chilly. I love to walk through rustling leaves as they drop from the trees but hate the fact that by the time the leaves have dropped Winter will be just around the corner.

I hope you have enjoyed my look at the beginning of a new season from my part of the world.