Autumn often seems to get overlooked by a lot of people, but here are 5 reasons to make you fall in love with the season.
Spring and Summer are full of vibrant colour, and Winter is dominated by the big celebrations of the season. But it’s very easy for Autumn to get sidelined, as we focus on preparing for Christmas, Hanukkah and other festivals.
The shops start filling up with Christmas gifts and food from September onwards, and the countdown seems to start earlier every year!
But there is an awful lot to love about Autumn, so here are just 5 of my favourite things:
Black tights and Doc Martens
To be honest, I am not the biggest fan of summer clothing. I never feel that I can find anything that really suits me. I always end up wishing that I could just put my black tights back on again to cover up my milk bottle legs. And don’t even start me on the agony that is summer shoe shopping!
So it’s a relief when it’s finally cool enough to get my winter clothes back out of storage. Big chunky knits, short skirts with black tights, jeans with boots, and of course my beloved Doc Marten shoes.
It’s so lovely to see them all again!
Comfort Food
In the summer months, I always enjoy simple food grilled on the barbecue, and big bowls of salad. But honestly, I really love the food that I cook when the weather goes cooler.
Roast dinners with all the trimmings and gravy. Big steaming dishes of stew or casserole from the slow cooker, served with buttery mashed potato. Jacket potatoes topped with spicy chilli and grated cheese. Fruit crumbles and pies, with jugs of hot creamy custard to pour over them.
It feels comforting just to think about eating this kind of food!
Crunchy leaves and shiny conkers
As a child, I always loved jumping in piles of crunch leaves in the Autumn, and when the boys were little they enjoyed it just as much. They’d come home with pockets stuffed full of conkers as well. But as they got older, the walks to the park happened less often and I forgot how much fun it can be.
Since Charlie joined our family, I’ve been taking him out for two or three brisk walks every day. He can really move for such a little chap! And in Autumn, when the weather turns crisper and the leaves start falling, I rediscover the simple pleasure of crunching leaves underfoot.
And even though I’m in my forties, and the boys are in their teens, I can’t resist picking up a conker when it catches my eye.
Berry lips and nails
This is a real seasonal favourite of mine. I’ve packed away the summer corals and pinks, and I’m bringing out the deep berry shades for lips and nails. These feel like the colours that I naturally gravitate towards so it’s lovely to bring them to the front of my nail polish and lipstick collections.
And if deep berry shades are too dark for the occasion, then I’m bringing out cashmere-soft neutral tones as well.
Festivals and Celebrations
Autumn feels like it is full of festivals and celebrations. It’s almost like the noise and colour of festivals makes up for the colder days and darker evenings. When the boys were in primary school, October was always the month for Harvest Festival. Now it is full of food festivals and pre-Christmas shopping fayres galore, not to mention Halloween and Bonfire Night.
I’m always tempted to adopt the American tradition of Thanksgiving as well – you can never have too many celebrations!