As the poet John Keats penned a few short months before his untimely death from tuberculosis, Autumn is a ‘season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’.

I love the early morning autumnal mists and the subsequent dew which adheres to all the foliage.

What a special time to prepare for the incoming winter….we have a season to prepare, to nestle into our comfort habits, to appreciate the last dog days of summer as they fade into milky, grey evenings and moody dark mornings.

Everything smells different, everyone looks different.

Bobble hats and hoodies, trainers and boots,

We move quicker – linger less.

We crave our comfort foods, roast Sunday lunches, creamy custard on fruit crumbles, fireside chats and crispy walks amongst the leaves.

Snuggle into to darker evenings and more box sets.

Covid autumn that’s a new one…

How does it look?

Restrictions in sixes,

Masks galore, fear and distancing,

What will Christmas look like ?

Absent late parties on New Year’s Eve

A nation tucked under the duvet by ten fifteen!

Sounds like the seventies of my youth!

When the TV stopped at ten and electricity went off, no street lamps no rubbish collected for months and months.

Maggie’s winter of discontent back then..

Boris’s winter of Covid restrictions now…

Chin up they used to say in my Mother’s day, there’s worse things happen at sea!

They probably do…but pandemic plandemic what will it be like ?

Let’s hygge together and stay in all night !

Then when we awake, as mole in the spring we will see the first rays of sunshine and shout, chin- chin back to Barbie’s and beer, craft beers and vapes in Hackney hipster land, can we get some tea and cake ?

Let’s hope we all get through and make it there in one piece with body mind and spirit, all in tact.

To Autumn my friends… hygge abound, get your candles and blankets were in for a round of gluvine and cinnamon buns, soups and hot chocolate, baked potatoes galore, have a great Autumn season see you next year !

From one pearl to another.

Mags Lewis 27th September 2020