Everything is slightly upside down in Down Under. And so are the seasons. It’s here. Fall. My favorite season. I can’t help myself. I love fall although it means that winter is just around the corner. For all my life I have always felt connected to nature the most during fall. Maybe because everything I loved doing was so much easier in fall.
As I’ve mentioned before, I used to own a horse. Now growing up in a Swiss mountain village and owning a horse is a pretty great thing. But there are some limitation to the fun. While riding out in winter is limited to the roads mostly due to all the cross country tracks and snowed in paths the limits in summer are due to the farmers. And in spring… well in spring everything is wet and muddy…
But in fall it was different. It is colorful and the weather is so great most of the time… Everything was ‘open’. The fields were open as the last cut of hay was done and the cows had eaten the last fresh grass from their pastures. The floor was harder because it got really cold over night and so you could just take your horse wherever you wanted to. Almost. I guess the only tricky part were the hunters during this time of the year…
The air was chilly in the morning when I got my horse ready for riding out. It was the time when you had to start wearing warmer jackets and maybe even gloves. But then when the sun was higher it actually got really warm. I loved the time when we left early and caught up with friends or family somewhere in one of the valleys for a picnic. By the time we arrived there it was nice and warm and the warm jacket and the gloves were no longer needed. We usually spent a while there just chilling in the sun, enjoying a sandwich or even a sausage made on a campfire.
You knew it was time to head home when the sun slowly reached a certain point. From then forward it would get chilly again, as it would quickly disappear behind the mountains. After having enjoyed the sun in a t-shirt it was time to saddle up again and head home. And when we arrived at home we were sure happy to have a warm jacket and gloves with us again.
Now, in Australia, it doesn’t get as chilly. The temperature is lower and you definitely feel it. It get’s really chilly actually. It’s still colorful, but maybe not as colorful as it was and still is in Switzerland.Β I think what’s still the same is how the light changes. How everything seems so much calmer in fall then it does the rest of the year.
Maybe it’s because nature is getting ready for a winter snooze… Maybe it’s because it get’s dark early. I just find it a very peaceful season. So even without a horse in my life now, I love spending time outside in fall. Today I won’t be able to do much outside but I am sure looking forward to heading out in the next couple of days.
What is your favorite season of the year and why?
What a beautiful memory.
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Oh for sure. Making more beautiful memories as we speak.
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That’s wonderful.
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Actually I love all seasons in their special way. But I guess Spring is most welcome after I got enough of ‘beautiful’ Winter!
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I can imagine π
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Spring. the long Minnesota winter is finally drawing to a close and I’m seeing green grass, leaves, new flowers. I get to feel warm breezes and all day rains.
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It must feel great after this long winter…
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It does
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That was a beautiful read. I think all the seasons have their own charm but Spring is probably my favourite, I love the opening of new buds and first emergence of spring flowers after the winter, it’s real cycle of life stuff.
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Of course. I guess for me spring was always rather muddy and yuck and when that was over it was already summer π
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I love fall too — and look forward to it coming all year! I just read a neat post about activities to do out in the leaves that I think you’ll enjoy: https://craigarmiger.wordpress.com/2014/11/06/its-autumn-im-leafing/
~Lee
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Ha! Will check it out, thanks π
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I love that time of year when we light the stove for the first time and relish quieter days.
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Yes. That sounds just like it π
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I loved your pic and your post, To me, all of the seasons have something special about them but the spring is extra special. The new life it brings, and the lighter and warmer days are just lovely.
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True. Every season is wonderful in it’s own way and it’s great to enjoy this special sides to each and everyone of them…
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I love fall the most too, but reading your post, I realized how much my enjoyment of seasons is linked to the holidays therein: fall & thanksgiving, spring & Easter.
Moving to a new country is hard, because everything is different, but I don’t think I understood how different things could be. My whole internal biological clock would freak out if Thanksgiving was in Spring.
Did you find that hard?
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I find Christmas in Summer really weird… And Easter is fall too. As Swiss you don’t celebrate Thanksgiving really and we only started doing it here in Australia with US friends, so it was new to me and therefor now kind of belongs to the Australian spring. But of course it makes more sense to be in fall and I would love to have a proper US Thanksgiving in the US one day π
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The Spring …rebirth! Everything comes alive for another round.
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Very true π
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Fall definitely my favourite! Just something about those crisp leaves and earthtones that makes my heart sing!
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And how it all smells π
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YUM!
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Fall is my fav season.. Don’t know why though!
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I try to figure it out for myself too. I think it’s the calm.
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I always knew you folks on the bottom of the planet had opposite seasons, but to actually see it through the eyes of someone there is pretty cool. Here, I’ve been writing about all the snow melting and the weather getting warmer and all the while just the opposite is happening for you. That means, your Christmas is in the summer!
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Yes, it is! And it’s so weird! At least for me, having lived in Switzerland for all my life before the move Down Under π Now there is no more White Christmas without travelling for hours and hours π
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It was interesting to look at autumn through your eyes π For me, autumn was always (accept for Indian summer) grey rainy days, shorter days, getting cold.. I love spring – it’s the opposite. Rebirth, celebration of life, expectations of warmth π
You know, autumn was the favourite season of Alexander Pushkin, he wrote a lot about it:
A melancholy time! So charming to the eye!
Your beauty in its parting pleases me –
I love the lavish withering of nature,
The gold and scarlet raiment of the woods,
The crisp wind rustling o’er their threshold,
The sky engulfed by tides of rippled gloom,
The sun’s scarce rays, approaching frosts,
And gray-haired winter threatening from afar.
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Wow… Thank you for sharing π It definitely matters how FΓ€ll presents itself to you.
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