A new season.

Autumn is most definitely my favourite time of year. Having spent a lot of the summer longing for constant warmth, but often being a little disappointed as I spend my days changing out of one outfit and into another as the great british weather expresses its varying personalities, I love that moment when something changes in the air and you can just smell autumn. The leaves are still green, the weather still can’t make up its mind but there is something exciting around the corner, a new season is on its way.

For frazzled mums and dads everywhere it probably brings a great sense of relief as they dream of packing their adorable little bundles back to school, longing to get their own lives back to some sense of normality, but I miss that time with my children, especially the day spent in town choosing stationery for the new school year. I might have struggled with the moans and groans, and the long hours spent trying to find affordable, but reasonably trendy school uniforms, but there was nothing nicer than helping them choose a new pencil-case and filling it with colourful pens, pencils, a ruler and an eraser. I miss it so much that I may possibly be spotted in the stationery shop choosing new ones for myself, although these days it will be a more peaceful experience.

Just as we journey each year through spring, summer, autumn and winter so everything in our lives goes through seasons, whether it’s becoming a mum for the first time, starting a new friendship or relationship, a new idea or plan or just the ageing process, each has its various stages. Some seasons are easier to get through than others. There are the warm ones, the cold ones, the ones that give us a sense of excitement or achievement, the ones we dread, and the ones that leave us wanting more, but change always comes in one way or another and seasons are exactly that, times in our lives that come and go, its how we live through them that makes us stronger and helps us to become the people we are meant to be.

This year I have been going through a winter experience with my health and a spring experience in a new relationship. I hope for the first that spring is round the corner and for the second that winter is a long time coming, but I am living proof that seasons change. The trick is to keep yourself warm and well looked after in the winter months, safe in the knowledge that you will one day be basking in the sunshine.

This will always be my favourite time of year. It excites all my senses, there is a healthy bite to the air and the vibrant colours as the trees change their clothing never cease to amaze me. I still can’t resist walking through puddles and kicking piles of leaves in the air and I still collect conkers, I love the feel of the shiny smooth coating and the sound they make as they click clack against each other in my pocket during windy dog walks through the park. Hearty Soups begin to replace salads, logs have to be chopped for winter and as thoughts begin to turn to the coziness of a roaring fire, summer becomes a distant memory as we turn the page to autumn.