It's A Sheep's Life ... Baa

When we lived in Portsmouth, Halloween was a community event. Doorsteps were decorated with pumpkin lanterns, fake cobwebs and plastic spiders. The street breathed in the excited chatter of witches, their cats and spooks, including the odd devil.  I always took my daughter and her friends out for the evening, but as the cold cut through their flimsy witchery and their pumpkin lanterns swung to reveal the next door to knock on, they would forget about their little red noses and icy toes and shout, ‘Trick or treat!’. Occasionally their call was answered by a ghost or a werewolf but after a nervous scream, fruit lollipops, chocolate buttons and squishy jelly eyes would be on offer for their little red fingers to pick at. After we had exhausted all the well-known bounty streets, we’d return home to the instant warmth of our gas fire. Now, I only heard the tinkling of a spoon as it stirred steaming cups of hot chocolate along with the rustle of sweet wrappings being torn open to unleash...

It’s getting darker earlier, my sugar snap pea plants are dying and my cat is gaining his winter teddy bear coat. I can’t believe the summer is drawing to an end. It seemed to start so late this year and now the first leaves are turning yellow and falling. Since moving to Scotland, I’ve felt and seen the seasons clearly. Down on the south coast of England, they seemed to merge into each other, the winters so mild they felt autumnal-like. I was in awe at the colours of our first autumn here and I no longer view leaves as a slippery nuisance, but food for the worms. Hard frosts and snow are welcomed because their nature’s way of killing off the circulating bugs and germs. But the beginning of autumn is a chance for me to change into my winter socks, sit in front of a log fire and make time to read a book or scribble away on old notebooks. Let’s all hunker down and wait for all the good things autumn and winter bring. (Photo by Matt Seymour at Unsplash)