BLOGG # 94 AUTUMN IS HERE !

  This morning ,as is my custom on waking up, I drew back the blinds eagerly expecting sunshine --and  faced a blank white window. The Victoria autumn fog was here. The whole world was wrapped in a fuzzy white blanket.  I love autumn ! I love the whole idea of it - the feel of it in  the air , the smokey smell of it,  the crispness, the promise of changes everywhere, the excitement, even the inevitable rain-especially the rain. Autumn ,more than spring, heralds changes for me.One of the more important changes is the joy of  changing from tired summer clothes to Fall clothes. Every year at this time I am caught in surprise. One would think after so many years I would be prepared but that never happens. I get up and hunt through the closet for suitable clothes and can only find summer or winter items. Somehow the autumn clothes have disappeared as I frantically try to assemble a suitable outfit. Linen pants tucked into socks and winter boots, sleeveless T shirts topped with heavy long hot itchy wool sweaters and  long woolly scarves do not make  good fashion statements.  If my budget allows, this is the time I joyfully  go out and rashly buy unsuitable fall clothes. However the most important expected changes in fall  are of  course not fashion but what  plans we want to make to improve ourselves over the long winter. Autumn means "school " "academia" "honing of latent talents" "spiritual renewal" and of course optimistically enthusiastic athletic programs. This means visiting all the free newspaper stalls,  libraries advertising wonderful college and  university courses and local community centers where one can choose a variety of of courses on "cooking, sewing, photography or  macrame or even enrolling in the  more exotic "scrivener"clubs, book clubs or Dialogue clubs. Every  autumn,wading through fallen leaves, through the fog or drizzle, I venture out with good intentions for self improvement, and every autumn I fall short as I overestimate my enthusiasm and free time.  Nonetheless, the joy of anticipation in these ventures never fades year after year. The changes I have not as  yet mentioned are  the best of Autumn-the turning of leaves to brilliant hues of red, yellow and gold. This of course brings to mind the passage of time and we are reminded of our own mortality and and the inevitable melancholy associated with Autumn sets in-again one of the aspects of Autumn I love. Oh the delightful nostalgic feeling of shuffling through fallen leaves at dusk in the rain , hands deep in one's pockets, contemplating the swift passage of time and the futility of one's life. This is one of my favourite Autumn pastimes. My childhood memories of autumn in the prairies were different- riding on the hayrick piled high  with hay looking at the big orange moon, racing through clouds of smoke from the fire as my father burned the brush from the big potato field and the excitement of watching the huge combines and trucks  filled with grain. Autumn days in Greece where I spent several years reminds me of the smell of mothballs as the huge wool carpets aired in the sun after the long summer in storage and then the excitement of covering the cold marble floors with them and the taking down of white filmy curtains and replacing with heavy velvet ones-all in wonderful warm autumn colours .Please remember to always enjoy this rich promising season, dear readers, and forget the long winter months looming in the distance.