Summer and winter are all well and good, but it’s Spring and Autumn that have always got the poets and philosophers in a spin. And particularly Autumn, which Albert Camus called ‘a second spring when every leaf is a flower.’
He wasn’t the only one to wax lyrical about the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness (Keats) or revel in ‘the year’s last, loveliest smile’ (New York Post editor William Cullen Bryant).
Even the return of a chill in the air has inspired our greats to mention that ‘bracing tang in the air that sends the blood beetling briskly through the veins’ (P. G. Wodehouse).
And some have gone even further: ‘No spring nor summer beauty hath such grace/As I have seen in one autumnal face’ wrote John Donne, while Samuel Butler delighted in the fact that ‘what we lose in flowers, we more than gain in fruits’
Are they putting a brave face on things? Not a bit of it. Take a look at our Autumnal list of reasons to be cheerful and you’ll feel every bit as inspired by the new season as the great men of letters above.
Top 10 things we all love about Autumn
Honking geese in ‘Red Arrows’ formation
https://youtu.be/qEVpJK7pEPE?t=54s
Making crumbles
Fires
Leaves. So many leaves.
Hearty soups and casseroles
Murmurations of starlings
Conkers
Having the beach to yourself
Cobwebs covered in dew. At sunrise.
Putting away the lawnmower for the rest of the year
Video: Reasons to be cheerful amid the cold, doom and gloom
The weather is cold, the news grim... but we've been counting our blessings, from new Sherlock to British sporting brilliance.
Apple and blackberry crumble pie with amaretti ice cream
Apples are a firm British favourite and deservedly so.
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A brilliant lonely (dog) hearts ad for Crumble was shared by us at Country Life – and ended up sparking
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