Autumn in August

These last few days I've realised that the rainy days are no longer cold, miserable summer days, but chilly, wet autumn days. While most of the trees are still green, the horse chestnut has begun to change colour and shed leaves. And the evenings aren't getting darker just because of the rain clouds, but because the days are slowly getting shorter and shorter. It is definitely not summer anymore. Maybe I could still live in that illusion if it'd been sunny: after all we had temperatures over 20 degrees just the other day, but now the days are either rainy or windy -- or both.

It's mostly orange and yellow tagetes and chrysanthemum that are still in bloom around the yard, which emphasizes the autumn colours rather than add to the in places still present, but subdued and sparse, rainbow of summer flowers. Sure, there's still rose and red fuchsias, pink hollyhocks and purple clematis, but it's the orange flower that you see the most of.

I still have summer photos, I wanted to edit and put on the blog and now all of a sudden it's autumn. It came so fast! There's so much I love about the autumn, but I wouldn't have minded a few summer days more. Anyway, this change in weather pushed me to publish some flower and other outdoor photos, which I haven't done in ages. At least that's how it feels. I've gotten behind with summer photos so I don't want that to happen this season as well.

Apart from all the gorgeous colours and many beautiful days of early autumn, the one thing I really like is that it's harvest season. I love going from apple tree to apple tree, collecting the most delicious (well, mostly delicious) pieces of fruit you can find. Nothing tastes as good as fruit and vegetables straight from the plant. We also have a pear tree -- two, but one is no longer producing fruit -- and the grapes in the greenhouse are slowly ripening too.

Maybe I feel that the weather cheated me of the last days of summer, but I'm really looking forward to having a great autumn ahead. I might not feel that way in November -- not so much due to the dull and dreary normal November weather as due to the fact I'll turn 30 then -- but right now I'm looking forward to seeing all the leaves changing, eating rain-wet apples of the trees, drinking hot cocoa and reading good books in a warm room while it's raining outside, smell the freshness in the chilly autumn air, savour the sunny days and just generally enjoying the good sides of autumn. And of cause preparing for and enjoying the bead soup blog party in about two and a half weeks.