Let me count the ways...

@N ~ OK. So I've already gone on (and on) about how much I love Autumn.  But really, I do!  Today has been rather chilly. A slow, steady drizzle since I stepped off the train this morning, and I felt a bit cold on the platform on the way home (it was 55 degrees F - tomorrow will be warmer they say).

My intentions for this evening were actually quite good. I was going to assemble a small wardrobe I bought at IKEA last week. Thanks to the coffee I bought on the train home, I am actually feeling rather awake and I ought to make the most of that.  But I've changed my plans: I've lit candles and tea lights. I'm drinking tea with milk in it. There's something involving apples, plums, and sugar simmering on the stove, and it smells divine and autumnal.  Silly girls from a Jane Austen movie are dancing around on my TV screen.  

An ideal way to spend a rainy Monday evening. The wardrobe can wait; I've lived without one for over a year and a few more days is not going to make one bit of difference.

September has come, it is hers,

whose vitality leaps in the Autumn,

whose nature prefers

trees without leaves and a fire in the fire-place;

So I give her this month and the next,

thought the whole of my year should be hers who has rendered already

so many of its days intolerable or perplexed

but so many more so happy;

who has left a scent on my life and left my walls

dancing over and over with her shadow,

whose hair is twined in all my waterfalls,

and all of London littered with remembered kisses.

~ Excerpt of Louis MacNeice's "Autumn Journal",

which is a lot longer, actually,

but this is the bit I like the most - especially that last line.

"All of London littered with remembered kisses"

På kanten

I dag er det den første efterårsdag, siger min kalender + en pæn del af mine facebook-venner. Vejret siger det samme - iphonen's kamera har på elegant vis undladet at indfange regndråberne på ruden, men man behøver nok ikke at være Voldborg for at konstatere, at det regner.

Det blæser også, og i det hele taget kan man mærke, at Oktobers RUSK ikke er langt væk. Mig gør det ikke noget.  Jeg er lalleglad, når årstiderne rigtigt folder sig ud (igen; af hjertet tak for sommeren 2013), og lige så lalleglad, når vi står på kanten til en ny årstid. Alt i alt en enfoldig sjæl, som er nem at stille tilfreds. (Og så så beskeden!! :-)

I dag har jeg således tilbragt med passende efterårs-agtige aktiviteter: jeg har syltet. Asier og rødbeder (gule rødbeder. Gulbeder??).  Indre Erna fryder sig, Indre Lecia vånder sig. Min far holder med Erna, og han er en glad mand i disse dage, for min mor har syltet ikke mindre end SYV asier (på størrelse med små hvaler), og så ved han, det bliver en god vinter. 

Det er ikke helt på tide at gemme sandalerne væk (selv om hyggesokkerne nu kan findes frem), men jeg kan godt mærke, at noget overtøj af en slags bør tages i brug, for det er pænt køligt på stationen i den årle morgenstund. Til gengæld er det på tide at fylde lageret af fyrfadslys op (check) og øge indtaget af te med mælk (getting there). Og ud over at efteråret er skønt i sig selv, så indeholder det jo også dejlige ting som f.eks. min fødselsdag, Halloween, Københavnertur med søster og sommerhustur med familien Hittemis (jeg satser på gedigent efterårsvejr den weekend - det sommerhus har BRÆNDEOVN, hurra!), pumpkin pies og hyldebær-toddy'er (jeg har rom). 

Kort sagt, masser af ting at se frem til og nyde, mens de sidste rester af sommeren pakker sammen.  Glædelig September!

PS - jeg ved godt, at månedernes navne ikke skrives med stort begyndelses-bogstav på dansk. Men jeg synes, de fortjener det :-)

@ N ~ the calendar now says September, and September means Autumn is here. Or Fall, if you will (I like both).

As you've probably deduced, we've had a particularly lovely summer this year. With actual sun, and lots of it too.  And, you know, I've even overheard one of the local farmers say that the harvest was "satisfactory" and trust me, that means pretty darned good.  So we've had a good run for our money.

And as much as I love the seasons when they're in full swing, I can't help also loving this "teetering" on the brink of a new season. The almost imperceptible change in the way the air smells, how the sky has a different colour of blue, how the garden changes, how different the whole world feels.

In celebration of the beginning of Autumn, I've spent the afternoon pickling beetroot and a kind of cucumber - I have no idea what it's called in English, but as you can see from the picture they're huge. Any idea?

And this evening, I've spent on the sofa with a movie, a book, and a large mug of tea with milk. Tea candles are lit, and if I weren't such a lazy bugger, I would go and fetch my cozy socks.