Project 365 day 247: summer's end

After yesterday's sun, the clouds returned today, giving very flat light. In the hedgerows tall seed heads are silhouetted against the sky, giving a very autumnal feeling. Ten years after I stopped teaching, I still think of the first week in September as the start of autumn and in many ways the start of a new year, when I get back to work, embark on new projects and see events and commitments lining up after a summer break. As the child of teachers and a long-time student before I became a teacher, the academic year is still my preferred diary format. I enjoy autumn: we will be harvesting for some time yet, but it's also the time for clearing up, drawing things to a close, and seeing plants, trees and landscape first in transformed colours and then revealing their shapes more starkly. 

Today has been quiet. I've done some much needed clearing up, though as always it's a drop in the ocean, processed basil and oregano I dehydrated a while ago and stored them in labelled jars, and picked more basil to refill the dehydrator. I also made time to take my coffee and a book to the balcony - I've just started Ali Smith's Spring, which sounds rather unseasonal but is the third of a quartet of novels I've been slowly working through for a couple of years, and so far I'm liking it a lot. They also have lovely David Hockney covers. J and P are now watching the 1965 Dr Who and the Daleks movie on Talking Pictures TV, a rare excursion into broadcast television for J, allowing me to blip unusually early - it's so much easier to write when I'm still awake!