By far, autumn (or fall) is my favourite season. It always has been, and it has never faded. The reason? Best summed up in this photo – the beautiful colours that nature producers as it’s preparing to go to sleep for a while.
There are so many things I love about autumn. By the time September rolls around, I’ve gotten a bit fed up with summer. I’m a bit bored with the BBQ’s (which my husband loves!), I’m bored with the clothes I’m wearing, I’m bored with the heat. Whilst I do look forward to summer in the depths of winter, by the time it’s coming to a close, I am looking forward to my favourite time of the year. I start to get excited for it in September when things are starting to shift a little, and by October I am completely here for it. The colours of the trees is just breath taking, nature truly does put on its golden show for us. She shows in all her resplendent glory that preparing for bedtime is an abundance of golds, reds, and yellows – the last hurrah before settling down for a much needed period of rest and rejuvenation. That sleep before she begins her beautiful display all over again.
I also love the cosiness of autumn. We spend a lot of time outdoors in the summer, as we should, but in the autumn I love nothing more than a bracing walk in the countryside before coming home and cooking real comfort food and settling down in front of a good film or a good book, with a fire going. I love it, and I have memories of times doing exactly that which I cherish. They make me feel warm and cosy just thinking about them. And a walk in the autumn countryside, with the leaves crunching underfoot and that nip in the air is one of my favourite pastimes. When you get back home, your cheeks all red from the chill, when you unwrap a few layers of clothing, and the nights are drawing in. I can’t describe how much I enjoy that.
I’m English, and we love nothing more than a Sunday roast dinner. In my family, we don’t tend to have them in the summer because it’s just too warm to cook them, and they’re a heavy meal you don’t want on a sunny Sunday. No, those days are for BBQs in the garden, for salads and burgers. But in the autumn, I love a good old-fashioned Sunday roast. It’s warming, it’s comforting, and it’s a family meal where it is a requirement to sit around the table and chat. There are no games to go running off to do, no running around under the sprinklers as in the summer. No, we sit and talk having worked up an appetite for dinner. I love it.
The other thing I love about autumn is that it is a build-up to Christmas. There’s the Halloween fun at the end of October, bonfire night fun at the start of November in England, then that slow build-up to the end of autumn, at Christmas. I often think that November is an underrated month, I have no idea why I think that, I just do. It’s kind of that month that doesn’t have those freak warm days in October, the days are shorter, and it’s kind of like the lull before the Christmas storm. But it’s a quiet month to me, a month where you can enjoy all the benefits of autumn before you’re off being festive in December. It helps that my birthday is in December as well, so it’s an extra festive month for me. It’s a month where you can just enjoy the autumnness of autumn but equally watch that slow slide into winter.
In meteorological terms, the end of November is the end of autumn, but for me it doesn’t end until the end of December. That’s because I love December. I love the excitement around Christmas, around my birthday, and the fact that people are generally more sociable, more cheery, and more pleasant in December. Even those who aren’t so keen on Christmas for their own reasons, which I do get. I love all the lights that are up at that time of year, brightening everything for the shortest day. I remember around Covid, more people put up lights and decorations outside their houses, putting them up earlier and leaving them up longer to cheer everyone up, and it really did for me. I love the shops with the decorations and Christmas music…I just love it. My favourite day of Christmas is Christmas Eve for the anticipation, and when I was younger that was it for me. It was a quick descent into January. But, I have come to appreciate those days between Christmas and New Year, when we spend some real quality, quiet time with family not doing much just recharging the batteries.
Some of my most treasured memories are of days spent in the autumn (including December!). Days where I’ve been on holiday in the UK somewhere, enjoying the change in season. A particularly memorable memory is of living in Northumberland and seeing the most spectacular display of autumn at Alnwick Castle, and a visit to Bamburgh Castle in the autumn which was magical. Another was of spending a beautiful autumnal day touring the Tower of London with my beloved grandmother. Yet another was of going for an interview at Arundel Castle for a spring and summer job there, when the castle was closed to visitors. A few Christmas-related memories at Holkham Hall when my son was young for a themed event, a Christmas event at a mill close to us when my son was even younger, selecting our Christmas tree at a farm in Norfolk and having it brought to us on a sled. And there are other times, when we have walked along the beaches of Norfolk in the autumn, cycled around the grounds of a stately home or round a reservoir near where we live. So many, many wonderful memories. Of course, I have lovely memories of activities in the spring and summer, but there is for me something more magical about the autumn ones. And I treasure them.
It is truly winter for me in January. Which used to be my least favourite month but is now my son’s birth month, so, it isn’t so bad anymore! But as I look forward to the spring (and in January, I really look forward to my second-favourite season), I still look back at autumn with real fondness. And usually a wonder at how quickly the time went!
Louisa Simpson 