Signs of Autumn
May 31 26
By
Lynne Pearl
It was really hot this year, in fact the cows were looking at us gratefully as we drove in because they had been moved out of their accustomed fields up to the shade of nice big barn. They weren’t going to be out in the sun. The visitors were. But after the truck show in May and then the Hill Rally the late August bank holiday weekend among the dust and the heat, summer had definitely faded, Autumn or Fall was definitely on its way. It was still warm but not so warm and it was raining, real rain after three months of drought and saving gardens and plants as best we could, rain was back and the plants and the people were happy and refreshed.
Walking beside the river down here as it winds through the town you find all kinds of beauty. First here are the sleeping ducks who early in the morning just sit and glide on their own waterway. There is nothing to disturb them, and the passersby don’t even seem to see them. It is rather like a scene from the ‘Wind in the Willows’ in which here are no humans but merely simple animals with wonderful personalities. This book was written by the author as he visited and walked beside the Thames at Heley and beyond.
It is a humble river with no historic past and future beside these rivers there are bushes of Old Man’s Beard, and brambles and wild roses that run to hips bright red as Fall comes along.
Beside where the river runs, there are old trees and a leat wih a little white board bridge for the people on foot and at the foot of a tree just beside the river there is a clump of late clematis beside the path in the palest, most perfect shade of pink ever seen.
They cluster together and grow spilling down the river bank near the river and all around the foot of the old tree that is beside the castle that has stood for centuries at this spot. Nearby is King Arthur’s sword for all to try and draw from the block of stone that it is magically part of.
And soon we will be thinking about Angels and Christmas time.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7796332.Lynne_Pearl
Art by Cath Whitehead