When we lived down the hill in Wattle Grove we were in a new housing estate- a place which had recently been levelled and cleared of all trees. We generally travelled around areas that we industrial or commercial to get where we needed to go. And the bush and trees that we did see were gums which are of course evergreens. I didn't realise it at the time but that Autumn just felt off. The weather of course being Western Australia was still pretty hot by our Kiwi standards. And nothing changed.
The following year we moved Will up the hill to a different primary school. I had to drive him to school every day. Lesmurdie by contrast with Wattle Grove is more established and many of the homes have been lived in by the same families for many years. The variety and type of plants are so much more and different that where we had been travelling. And when Autumn came change came too. It was then that I realised what I had missed the previous year.
Other than the sheer beauty of the colours of the changing leaves and foliage there's some thing about the change in the season that I think affects me emotionally. Like a settling. Settling into the school year ahead. Settling in to home and preparing for the winter season ahead. Winter is busy for us all the kids play a winter sport. Autumn is the calm before the storm. Slowly practices start and our weeks become a rhythm. I spend more time outside in open spaces in the late afternoon and watch the sun set earlier and earlier. Jerseys come out and eventually jackets (sometimes anyway). We get ready to pick up pace for winter weekends of travel and games.
Autumn is the gentle season that ushers in the busyness of winter as the leaves change I change. And I've found that I need that season in my life to prepare- for the season ahead.
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