Albert Camus, the French philospher beautifully encapsulates this time of year when the new colours of autumn are everywhere.
Its easy to see this time of year as the end of things. Summer has ended, taking with it the warm days, or in the case of this year, the too-hot days, and the balmy nights. The flowers are fading and wilting, the butterflies are gone for the winter, and the days spent on the beach playing in the sand and sea seem to be a memory, however, Albert Camus sees it differently. A second spring, a new start. I remember a quote by an unknown writer, “Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go”.
The fading pinks and yellows of the vibrant summer blooms are replaced by glorious cosy reds, and oranges, the very colour of autumn. Piles of leaves are building up on the lanes, just waiting to be kicked into the air by small welly-booted feet. What a joy that is for children! It never gets old, the feeling of wading through a heap of crunchy, beautiful leaves. And who can forget the sycamore ‘helicopters’? I will never tire of watching one spin to the ground after it has been thrown in the air. I collect them up in their hundreds and keep them in a pot, ready to throw from an upstairs window for the children to enjoy! They collect them all up and shout ‘Do it again, Mummy!’ Hard to imagine that there is a purpose for those helicopters, other than just giving us pleasure! Isn’t good old mother nature clever?
This beautiful place we call home takes on a different kind of pleasure at this time of year. Maybe it is too cold to enjoy the sea fully, shrieking with delight at the welcome cold on your hot skin, but the sea is glorious and wild in the autumn and winter, and the beaches are now almost deserted by contrast to the busy days of July and August, making them a perfect place to blow away cobwebs and work up an appetite. We even managed a picnic there this weekend, we don’t care if its cold, as long as we are on the beach! At this time of year, the restrictions concerning dogs on the beaches start to get lifted, so our four legged buddies can come to play in the sand and the frothy surf, and wow, do they enjoy it! There’s no happier doggy than a dog on the beach (except maybe a dog with a leg of lamb!).
One beach that is not open to dogs yet, or people for that matter, is Mwnt. Beautiful Mwnt, where we spent so many summer evenings watching the dolphins is now temporarily out of bounds because a seal pup and its Mum have set up camp there while it grows up enough to go it alone. Seal pups have to be left completely in peace for their own protection, so for now, Mwnt has to be left alone.
I wonder how much that family had to pay for exclusive residency at one of our most lovely beaches?!
Our personal favourites, the butterflies are now all gone away for the winter, along with many of the bugs, which means our bird feeders are now teeming with activity once again, now their buggy-takeways have run out. Masses of bluetits, tree creepers, wag tails, nut hatches, gold finches and woodpeckers adorn our feeders battling for their share of the loot, including homemade bird cake, and our local family of squirrels are back.
These regular cheeky chaps come to collect sunflower seeds for their winter stash, and are not averse to sitting on the fence staring in at us, like we are exhibits in the zoo! I wonder what on earth they think of us? Whatever they think, we think they are awfully cute!
