I’m a summer baby through and through and if it wasn’t at least 25C, I didn’t like it. The hotter the better is my motto. The long days of daylight make me feel alive. So traditionally, with the onset of autumn, with its dark days and colder weather, despair sets in for me. (Seasonal depression, obviously.)
But as I’ve aged, despite not being able to get on board with the dark and the cold, I’ve managed to find elements of autumn that I can fully embrace.
Growing up in America, Halloween was always one of my favourite days of the year. When I first came to the UK in 2010 it went by reasonably unmarked, but every year I’ve been here, Halloween has grown in popularity. Last year we even had our first trick-or-treaters knock on our front door and I nearly died of delight. Gothic romance, ghost stories and any sort of “spooky” vibe calls to the very essence of my being.
I find myself needing to focus on the parts of the season that appeal to me (like Halloween) to get me through the colder months.
I love a rainy Sunday morning in bed. With a nice book, a hot coffee and a pastry, pretty much nothing is more satisfying. I love the smell in the air during evening walks in the autumn: earthy and woody from the falling leaves, slightly smokey from newly lit fires, and you can smell the crisp turn of the weather.
I love the clack of conkers and the excitement of finding the best conker. (A few years ago, I overheard a conversation on a bus in London where a group of school boys was bemoaning the fact that their school had banned conker battles.)
I love raking up a satisfying pile of crunchy leaves and looking out into the local park and seeing it aflame with the burnt reds, oranges and yellows of the changing leaves. I love the slight cider-y smell of the allotments in autumn, from the decaying apples hidden in taller grasses. The change of seasons is evident in the brisk mornings where spiderwebs shimmer with late morning dew.
Autumn is banana bread straight out of the oven with some vegan butter melting on top. Autumn is carving pumpkins and cooking with all the squashes. It’s a world of cosy nights and flasks of Baileys hot chocolate on Bonfire Night.
Autumn is a world where the “Gilmore Girls” are always playing and your fresh-out-of-the-wash duvet beckons you to bed.
I’ll be making the most of the autumn by living as slowly as possible. I’ve no more trips planned at the moment. (For the first time in years!) I want to fill my season with Saturdays at the allotment, early Sunday hikes, afternoons baking and evenings snuggled up with Sam and Harold on the sofa watching horror films drinking oat milk hot chocolate.
What can I say? Maybe I am an autumn fan now!
For more on living your best life in autumn, you can read my ABCs of Fall. You can also read my seasonal eating guides for the autumn months. Here’s my October Seasonal Eating Guide and my November Seasonal Eating Guide.
What are you looking forward to this autumn?
