Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

My diary tells me that today is the first day of Autumn, and going out this morning with a mist settled over everything I was quite happy to believe it. For me it has been quite a change, for the last coupe of weeks in Malta I have been enjoying day time temperatures comfortably in the high twenties, often touching the low 30s more than a few times. Getting back to London even here the temperatures were still in the mid twenties and very pleasant. Then this morning it felt like quite a sudden change with the temperature a good five or six degrees lower than yesterday.

Of course autumn is a time for harvests and as the saying goes fruitfulness, but for those of us less directedly connected to the land it is a time for fresh beginnings as well. It is the start of the new school year, and along with that many bands and orchestras start their new season in September. On Friday it was a joy to get back to rehearsals with the Phoenix Concert Band, it is great to see old friends, to make music together and to introduce a couple of new members into our midst. A new season also means new music, so it is pretty exciting all round. This is going to be one of our busier terms with a Remembrance Parade to play for as well as a couple of Christmas Concerts, that means a very wide selection of music to rehearse.

To some of us autumn has yet another meaning, something that I look forward to all summer ~ the chance to wear boots again! ~ yes I really am that shallow! Clothes have always been important to me and now I revel in wearing things that I couldn't before, and boots come very high on that list. Many of my favourite outfits include boots, leggings and a jumper, and it will soon be time to get them out again.  

This photo is about five or six years old, and at least a couple of stone (28 pounds or around 15 kg) ago. I still have these boots, and the leggings and tee shirt ~ there's no way that I'd look this good in them now, I think it is finally time that I made a concerted effort to lose some of my excess weight ~ perhaps I should give myself the target of a stone before Christmas?

"The season of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness" is the first line from John Keat's "To Autumn"