The Date Is Not The Moment

Every year autumn starts around the same time, you can set your watch by it. Everyone knows that date. Yet for me that is not the moment when I know that autumn has started. For me it really has to do with other things. The moment that autumn really starts for me is that moment in the year when the world changes from green to all kinds of warm shades such as yellow, orange, red and brown. It often starts subtly, but soon you know that autumn has really started. It is not only the changing colours, but also the moment that the trees lose their leaves. It is the evenings that feel colder, there is a certain kind of coolness in the air in the morning that clearly indicates the transition from summer to autumn. I cannot put it into words, but I feel it every year. Those moments are very specific and I could almost call them ritual.

Intense Coloring Of The Trees

We have now reached the point where the trees really lose their lush crowns, the colours are becoming more and more intense and when I walk through the forest with Skipper I have to laugh at his enthusiasm. He loves to run through the leaves. He jumps through the piles of leaves in the same way a child enthusiastically stomps through puddles. And I prepare myself for the moment when the broom has to come out again. The backyard is slowly becoming more and more full of those beautiful, but also chaotic piles of fallen leaves. Every day there is more, while when I look at the trees it seems as if everything has yet to fall. I know that I will soon be able to start clearing leaves for the first time, and that I will be able to keep it up for many days in a row.

There is another moment when you know for sure that autumn is here again. That is the moment when you have to realize with surprise that the summer heat has disappeared again. Imagine, just a few weeks ago I was still sitting in the garden in shorts enjoying the warm rays of sunshine. Now it has already reached the point where the temperature in the house no longer feels comfortable without us lighting the stove. That moment when you realize that the sun's heat is no longer enough to heat the house is also such a typical moment to realize that it is autumn. Of course, when you light the stove, a kind of coziness comes back into the house. Because it also gets dark earlier and earlier, and we therefore have much longer evenings, we also light candles more often, I get blankets out again to throw on the couches where we can crawl under in the evening.

Skipper Enjoys The Days And Evenings

Skipper also enjoys those evenings. During the day, he has much more energy that he likes to use. In the summer months he kept quiet, but it turns out that he has simply saved his energy for the cooler autumn. And he likes to use that saved energy now. Every day he finds something new to play with, and in the evening he enjoys to snuggle up on our couch under a blanket. In the summer he prefers to lie on the cool floor, but in the autumn he snuggles up to us.

When The Corn Is Crushed

But the most special moment for me, when I become most aware that autumn is really here, and we are facing the darkest and coldest months of the year, is something completely different. We live in the back, among all the agricultural land. And that agricultural land is mainly used to grow corn. In front of and next to our house are endless rows of corn plants, which grow high during the summer months. This has a great advantage because in this way it forms a natural barrier against the wind that would otherwise have free rein on the open plain where our house is. It is amazing how much wind is stopped by that corn. But every year the moment comes when the corn is crushed, and with that the moment when the wind is given free rein again. And that really brings me face to face with reality. It is autumn, it is that time of year again, the darkest and coldest months of the year have arrived.

The Wind Has Free Rein

Suddenly we are standing in an open plain again. The corn has disappeared and the wind has free rein. Where the tall plants previously held back the wind, it now hits our house directly. The temperature seems to drop a few degrees immediately, and the warmth we had built up inside evaporates faster than we would like. The wind blows harder, the days get shorter, and it is as if a blanket of melancholy is wrapped around me. On the one hand, I enjoy the coziness indoors, the peace that autumn brings. On the other hand, I know that winter is coming with biting cold and long nights. And when I realize that again when I watch the corn being crushed, I long for spring and summer again.

A New Beginning Lies On The Horizon

Yet there is something beautiful about that bareness. Where the corn used to block the view, there is now an unobstructed view again. It feels as if the horizon is opening up again, like a promise of something new. Let it be something beautiful that lies on the horizon.