It’s 18 degrees on my walk home from work, and the air is a bit colder than last week, though it’s still very sunny. Yellow and brown leaves are flying around, starting to cover the pavement, and I can feel the excitement that comes with the ending of one season and the start of another.
I’m counting down the days for autumn, but I’m also making the most of my least favourite season.
We haven’t had as many heatwaves as last year, and this summer has felt brief and mostly tolerable, with just a few hot days here and there.
I haven’t done much, though. While June and July were pretty busy, August has gone by slowly, with most of my time spent reading in the park, practising my watercolours and watching over the kitten we adopted at the start of the month.
I went strawberry picking on a nearby farm and read Avocado Anxiety by Louise Gray. This book analyses where our fruit and vegetables come from, with many inside details on British farmers and our current food system. I think it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year. I highly recommend it if you’re curious about the sustainability of our food.
During the hottest days, I would leave the house and find refuge in the park. I would take my watercolours, an extra large picnic blanket, and some snacks, and I’d enjoy the cool air while trying to get better at painting.
During those hot days, I read House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland. Its moody autumnal London setting helped me pretend summer was over. There’s nothing like a good contemporary gothic novel to enter autumn mode.
The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson brought me back to my YA mystery days, I read it the same week I watched A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder, and it felt like the perfect summer combination.
As the leaves started to fall, I walked around the park listening to the audiobook Sociopath by Patrick Gagne, a funny and very detailed memoir of her life as a sociopath. I played it for my cat, too, who, based on the amount of scratches I have all over my body, I believe also has sociopathic tendencies.
I finally got back into embroidery and finished an autumn hoop I started last year! I did so while watching Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin & Summer School. Both seasons are so creepy and have the best horror and autumn aesthetic, even season two, set during the summer break, feels like the perfect bridge into the spooky season.
Embroidering took me back to cross-stitching, getting me to join a spooky stitch-a-long that I’m already way behind on. I hope to have it all finished by October!
Growing up in Spain, my summers were hot and mostly miserable. I always found summer a season for longing, longing for cooler days, mosquitoes to die down, my favourite TV shows to start again in the autumn, and longing for rain and winter coats. But summers in England aren’t that intense, and after nine months of constant rain and gloomy days, I’ve found that I can actually enjoy this season, even if I still dream of autumn.
August is almost over, which means I’ll be 30 very soon. It feels weird to have reached this age milestone, but I’m excited about it. I can’t wait for September to start and begin this new decade, but in the meantime, I have a tiny cat to look after, a 30cm cross-stitch to finish, and many new books to read!
Willow in Winter 