Louis Michael: Stepping on leaves

When I was younger I’d never have said that September was my favourite month. September meant back to school and back to school was the most dreaded phrase of every kid’s childhood: the end of freedom, the downtrodden trudge back to the classroom prison, the beginning of the long wait until next summer. School cast a dark cloud over September that coloured everything a dreary dull grey. So it’s only in recent years that, being free from the mandatory madness of school, that I’ve been able to look upon September with a fresh pair of eyes and appreciate the gorgeous tones the season has to offer.

In spring I wrote about the particular magic rife in the transient seasons between winter and summer, the seasonal corridors that ferry us between scorching hot and bitterly cold. The mild days and the breezy afternoons of September reflect this perfectly. Without the desperate desire to plunge yourself into an icy cold bath to cool down, there’s an undeniable aura of relaxation bound up with autumn. It’s a calming atmosphere that’s embodied in the slow, tranquil fall of the leaves, a rhythm that we all unconsciously sync to as we wind down from the frantic fun of summer and prepare to curl up into our winter hibernation.

All I can say is that it’s a true shame that autumn is sandwiched between the summer holidays and Halloween and Christmas. It means that a lot of the time it’s overlooked as the world indulges in downtime between the two periods of merrymaking. In our mind’s eye we romanticise long hot summer days and pine after the ever-elusive white Christmas so much so that we tend to ignore the stunningly beautiful transition that takes place in-between. Each year we are treated to a natural spectacle as the trees set themselves alight with the colours of fire and the world turns orange and gold.

So before all the leaves have fallen make sure to stop and take a moment to appreciate the magic of autumn. And don’t forget to step on every crunchy leaf you see!