Sporting the yellows and reds
After the zingy spring and the cacophony of the summer colours I would have thought that there is not much colour left to see. But then along comes autumn and takes it all to a new level! The reds and the yellows are totally the stars! The big leaf show has not started yet in all earnest but I can feel it edging closer each day. I am already looking forward to see that explosion of colour before the leaves let go.
There is this one thing about autumn that I’ve been trying to figure out. July and August are proper summer months, everyone is away on holiday, we are all loving the summer, most of us are chilled or away or just quietly getting on with stuff. Comes 1st of September is back to school time and it all kicks off, big time! September comes with a plethora of new gigs, new theatre season, workshops everywhere, events coming out of our ears, summer sales, conferences, the lot! It’s like a massive challenge: how much of this new stuff can we cram in?
On the other hand my body is calling me to go within, the days are getting shorter, there is this chill hanging in the air, my body wants me to start slowing down.
Massive contradiction right?
So I spent some time mulling over this, trying to get how can these two things go together, all this business vs drawing in. I had a feeling I am missing some important point.
I was watching the squirrels in the forest earlier, frantically gathering nuts (bear with me, honestly, I am getting there:)) And the birds eating every berry in sight. They are all busy, busy,busy. And so it came to me! This is the business before we go in. This is the time to gather, to store for winter, to count your ducks and fill your larders.
And it is also the time to plant new seeds for next spring. Once we did all that, then we can take a breather in winter, go all in, get cosy and let nature do what nature does best, keep our seeds safe for a while before they sprout in spring.
I’ve got about 10kg of spring bulbs. I can’t wait to put them in, I already have visions of yellow happy daffodils swaying in the early spring air. And big red tulips, and white hyacinths and purple crocuses. With them I also see the virtual bulbs I am planting now in my life for next spring, my projects, my dreams. And so the colour in our gardens lives on.
