Last week we were melting in 30+degree weather. It was hot and humid and altogether uncomfortable (which makes me then question what I'm on about now). It was summer.
Monday was Labour Day. The last day of the holidays. It threatened rain all day and then there was a burst of sunshine long enough for us to enjoy a barbeque and a swim. I'd say it was the last until next summer but we're Canadian - we'd barbeque in minus 20C.
I don't go to school. This year I even worked through most of the summer. So why is it that Labour Day weekend triggers the same awful feeling in the pit of my stomach that I'm sure hundreds of thousands of children feel around the world (well, where ever they have Labour Day as the last day of summer holidays)?
The children went back to school on Tuesday. The air was crisp and the wind sent a chill through our clothes (which were foolishly a little lighter than was called for). Where does summer go? Does it smell the scent of school and decide to skedaddle? And why does 15 degrees in September feel colder than the same in March?
Autumn, Fall, whatever you want to call it, is a beautiful season. And I love it. But somehow, as the possibility of sun-filled days diminishes, it fills me with desperation. I become obsessive about making the most of each sunny day, anxious to soak it all in, savour it and bask in its warmth and glory, desperately trying to hold on to it, willing it to not disappear.
For those of us who live our lives around the school calendar (which is all of us at some point or another), it is this day - the first day of the school year - that holds far more significance than New Year's. It is in many ways a milestone. It is inevitable. As is the end of summer. A marking of the passage of time.
Even endings bring the beginning of something else.
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| A taste of what's to come - this particular bush on our way to school, turns a beautiful fuschia before succumbing to winter |
The theme over at Tara's Gallery this week is "Back to School". Just as I've been inspired by other blogs to start writing, her blog inspires me to take more pictures.
