Fall – How It Used To Be

It’s a beautiful day in early fall. Autumn has it’s own unique energy, which I believe is similar everywhere. It’s the struggle of summer that still wants to be in charge but has to make room for winter soon. It’s like a little struggle between the warm and the cold season. And in the middle of it is fall. A season of its own, trying to make a mark too. And it does. At least for me. It’s my absolute favorite season of the year. Always has been. And I think it’s my favorite season just because of this “struggle”. Because you kind of get a taste of both, warmth and chill. Although fall used is different now than it used to be, the basic characteristics are still there.

It’s late afternoon and I’m soaking in the last little bit of sunshine for the day. The air is slightly chilly yet the sun still nice and warm. I close my eyes and immediately feel taken back to those beautiful autumn days in Switzerland.

It’s like a scene in a movie: I can feel the slightly chilly air on my cheeks and remember the long shades while on my way back from a beautiful ride out with my horse. I can actually smell my horse, feel it moving under me, hear the dry leaves crunch under the hooves, maybe even a very thin layer of ice on a puddle or in the morning the crunch of the morning frost. Although the sun still feels warm on my skin I know that it soon won’t be so strong anymore. It’s already time to dress up much warmer, with way more layers than only a couple of weeks ago and although you might still sweat a little you get cold quite easily. Summer quickly turns into fall in Switzerland.

It doesn’t matter though. Fall is just a beautiful time of the year back there.

Everything is accessible now. The grass on the fields has been cut one last time and the cows graze on the last little bits of grass that might have some juice left. Soon the fences will be gone as well and the farmers will fertilize the pastures with manure. I think every season has its own smell and autumn is no different. It’s the leaves on the floor, the slightly wet soil mixed with the smell of a morning frost. It’s the cold mixed with the warmth… and it’s the manure on the fields mixed with all of it, that leaves a note unique for my kind of Swiss fall. And as silly as it sounds the smell of it mixed with the rest of the seasons smells creates something that I kind of miss down here.

This unique smell meant that there were no limits anymore for us horseback riders. Finally we could ride across the fields and were no longer limited to the tracks along the fields and river. We knew times would change soon and we would be back to the limitations of winter. But this was our moment. There was more space between us and the mountain bikers and hikers. The color of the trees and bushes changed. The mountains looked different. The shadows were longer. The world seemed more quiet. Ready to hibernate, kind of. It’s what nature does. At least I think so.

I try to explain what it all meant for me, but somehow I lack words for this season. The feeling it triggers and always did is something that is very deep for me, hard to explain, hard to describe. Maybe it’s in a way this last hurrah of nature that always touched me. The feeling that now everything will sort of stop in order to regain it’s energy and power over winter.

I tried to explain what fall means to me before here and here. Check it out, if you like. What is your favorite season and why?

This post is inspired by a comment Corinne from Wasted Days And Wasted Nights made a while ago. I already wrote about the differences in the other seasons like Winter in Switzerland or Australia , Spring in Switzerland or Australia and Summer in Switzerland or Australia.

Thank you for the inspiration, Corinne. It’s also a way to show you all my world. So I hope you enjoy it…