A wind blew through this morning, dare I say an autumn wind, yes most definitely, I think, an autumn wind, or more of a breeze really. Light, refreshing, full of delicious autumn energy. She breezed through and blew away the heavy intensity we've all been feeling from this Indian summer. Every time I would venture to the store, into the heat & humidity, people were talking about the weather. It seems I was not the only one feeling weary with the continuing high temperatures day after day. The senescing summer holds a fierce tension & intenseness here. This feeling of the summer air deepening, reaching a crescendo & time after time when it felt like it would break, thunder clouds rolling on in over the hills, the storm would blow around us and she would take it up a notch, intensifying further. The mornings were filled with the screeching sounds of cockatoos & corellas, their flocks filling up street trees, the ground littered with branches and leaves after they were long gone. A neighbour out in his pyjamas, hose in hand, trying to spray the birds out of his trees, while they simply moved around to the next door neighbours side of the tree. We sat in our little tree house bedroom giggling. And this morning there was not a single screech as a soft pink sun crested our little valley, I woke, cosy, with covers over me, instead of the bare star- fishing I'd become accustomed to over the past months. Pairs of gang gangs with their unmistakeable autumn call had come down from their summer mountain homes & when I opened the doors & windows in she blew, that indisputable breeze, & all that summer fervour vanished. I remember the same feeling exactly three years ago, when I was heavy with Niamh in my belly, waiting, for her, the breeze & my babe. I remember being deep in labour, looking out into the yard at the drooping peach & the ivy, their leaves moving to her caresses, twinkling back & forth. The relief I felt, that nine months of sickness & the last surge of summer was finally quieted. My sweet pea chickadee begins another turn around the sun tomorrow. I've been making a felted birthday crown. I wanted autumn leaves for my autumn girl but she requested flowers, so flowers it is. I find it hard to refuse birthday wishes. I love that both my girls birthdays' herald new seasons, new beginnings, re-inspired energies, change & growth of one kind or another. The changing seasons have sent my fingers into an itch & I've cast on two cardis, In Threes & Tiny Tea Leaves. I picked up my Everyday Cardigan and think I am ready to begin on the sleeves. The dry corn leaves are rustling in the breeze & I can hear my girls dancing together on the verandah. The eyebright are setting seed & the pumpkin vine grows metres every minute. Moths flit around the garden as my anemones uncurl. I have a birthday cake to bake ( hooray it's not too hot to turn the oven on) & my littles to go squeeze. Welcome Autumn, I am so glad you've arrived!
