Autumn

It's officially autumn here in Adelaide, although today is uncharacteristically hot and humid. Earlier in the week though the weather was decidedly autumnal with a distinct and welcome chill in the air in the early morning and once dusk fell. I think this is my favourite season of the year as after the ferocious heat, blazing sun, dust and dryness of a South Australian summer, coolness brings great relief. I'm not sure who it was who so poetically termed it the "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness" but it's a wonderful expression, conjuring up as it does colours of scarlet and gold, the soft haze of wood smoke, the crisp shininess of new season apples and the rich ripe smell of fallen leaves crunching underfoot.

Particularly at this time of year my Anglo-Irish ancestry betrays me and I long to be in a cold climate country where the season brings even more brilliant colours, mists that linger over lakes and rivers and deep mysterious woods where paths carpeted in gold disappear into the distance. But even here the new softness in the air and the lengthening shadows that come earlier and earlier in the evening bring a serenity that is healing to the overheated wearying long haul that summer usually becomes by the end of it.

Here in this hottest driest part of the country we are hoping and praying that the cooler days also bring some life-giving rain to heal our parched and drought ravaged gardens, dried out river beds, burnt out towns and the vast brown and yellow thirsty landscape all around us.