Anticipation automnal

There's no denying that Fall is my favourite season. Hey, I was born in mid October, so, no wonder, I guess. It is a season that has always held a certain fascination for me: a time of new beginnings marked by that oh so french feeling of la rentrée, that signifies the start of the school year - I went ahead and married a teacher! - the temperatures falling to crisp early mornings and mellow afternoons, that golden light that no other season can replicate within its sunsets...the way a golden autumnal sunset mingles and enhances the browns and reds and oranges and yellows of the leaves, there is no other moment in nature that can match this. The first rains, and the sweet smell of the sodden earthy ground, the tinge in the air, that breeze which is no longer soothing and refreshing, but begs for a warmer sweater, a cozier knit. The produce abundance, the sweet potatoes, those runner beans, the squash, the tart apples, those big, orange pumpkins and the quince. It is a time for reinvention, the start of Fall, where one can decide to just step into the rentrée with a new perspective, a new outcome, new hopes and dreams, a new you. How many of us use the end of Summer and the start of Fall to head to the hairdresser's and give our hairs a new cut, a new style, a new colour, getting rid of Summer's sun damages in our hair and making way for a brand new you?

So yes, I do love Fall, and by the start of September I sit in anticipation of it, and notice myself being drawn to autumnal elements in my everyday life, be it in my home accents, with the introduction of a warmer blanket on my couch, or a pillow cover in hues of brown, or the scattering of acorns around the house, be it in my cooking where I go for stews that simmer away in the stove on a low heat for a long while, filling the house with the heady scents of clover and bay and allspice, the baking of pear and apple cakes and tarts, ripe with cinnamon and spices, or the drinking of fragrant black teas in the afternoon, as I light a candle and relax, a good book at my hand, dreaming of what I will be cooking for Halloween, and how I will make my home warmer and cozier as the light starts to fail and days turn shorter. And this applies to my vignettes as well, I notice. I tend to go for darker images, earthier in their texture, and in the colours, with a strong feel of a darker age, and older times. As I took these pictures, with a grey sky lurking outside and the feel of rain screaming in my bones, I could almost envision the scene my dreams are made of, and that must have been part of a previous life: a late October early evening, a cobble stoned street, wet with recent rain, the street lamps that have just been turned on, complementing a sun that is setting behind clouds as dark as lead, the air filled with the scent of cinnamon buns and sweet cakes and spices, a tea house/ bakery just ahead of me, on the corner building, a red awning over its window, running with water, the lights on inside making it oh so inviting, and the space behind the counter filled with loaf after loaf of warm bread, as through the window I can see the small tables where happy people sit and await the end of the rain, as they sip on their hot teas... I know I must have lived this once, and it is this feeling that I always go to when September hits! These pictures try to be a mirror to these dreams, and I do feel I got them captured in an image, a rather evocative one.