Welcome to a weekly feature on my blog – Ben’s Zone. Written by husband… Ben. A foodie, coffee obsessed, ex-smoking, ex-drinking and Ridgeback loving Dad. Who is also seriously into his fitness. You can find him on the blog (most) Sundays. Enjoy 🙂
3 Things I Love About Autumn
Summer is great and I love the warmth. It’s a time for holidays, for relaxing and for taking life a little more slowly. It’s tempting to be sad as summer comes to a close, but I’m always secretly happy as it heralds the autumn, which is by far my favourite season. Here are three good reasons why.
1. It’s the Prettiest Season
Flowers bloom in summer and that’s great, spring is a symphony of green and I love that, but nothing comes close to the riot of colour that is autumn. Trees are riotous golds, oranges, reds and deep browns, the green is still around but tastefully muted and it’s lit by the wonderful, dusky, September sunlight. It’s softened from the sharpness of spring and the intensity of summer and it gives the natural world a warmth of tone other seasons don’t have.
2. It’s Got the Best Weather
In the UK we have rain the year round and autumn is no exception, but we still get the tail end of summer warmth offset by the gentlest nip in the air. Running in summer is misery and running in spring still carries the memory of winter cold, running in autumn is joyous, crisp air and warm skin with enough mud in the forest to make life interesting.
3. Game
I adore seasonal food and autumn brings my favourite food of all, fresh seasonal game. Few things can beat a hearty game pie full of venison and partridge on a lazy Sunday. Nowadays you can buy game year round but nothing beats the fresh game of autumn. Autumn lamb is also pretty special if you can find it, not as sweet as spring lamb with just a hint of the stronger flavour of mutton.
So, for those reasons I believe that autumn is the best season of all, it has all the advantages of other seasons and more besides. Even in ending autumn wins as when autumn comes to a close Christmas is only just over the horizon.
Couldn’t agree more! Autumn has always been my favourite season, still warm enough to go out without umpteen extra bits of clothing, but cool enough for a good night’s sleep. Not just the leaves turning colour, but the hedgerows full of berries from hawthorn, honeysuckle and bindweed, as well as acorns, cobnuts, and, best of all conkers. Oh, and the sweet chestnuts, cooked and eaten like sweets (roasting on an open fire is very romantic, but microwaving much easier!) It always seems much more of a season of promise and new beginning than January. 50+ years after leaving school, September is still the month for new stationery (although, so is October – August!) and a promise to oneself that this notebook will stay neat and tidy. Keats wrote of ‘the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’ which is beautiful – even the mist in Autumn is gentle and mysterious, unlike the freezing fog of winter. Yes, definitely the best season.
Definitely, I knew you would get it !