I anticipate the coming of Autumn like the buds of flowers anticipate their time to open into bloom. We are still in the waiting period before we see any sense of "sweater weather", however after around six months of summer heat I am so eager to enter into the gradual change of season. These are some favourite snippets of a proto-Autumn as I hold onto the hope that some cooler air will venture this way soon.
Tea, of course, is a staple every day, but when the evening temperature is a few degrees cooler it feel all that more comforting to make a tiny pot of loose leaf tea to enjoy with a book. My book (I just finished it) is A Little Learning by Evelyn Waugh.
I built out my own personal curriculum. I plan out for each week of the month different topics and/or authors I want to research and read more about. I select articles and books to read, and I take notes in this pretty notebook I picked up in Oxford earlier this year. Then I write an essay about what I've been learning so I can comprehend and retain it better. I am loving this habit; it's something I've wanted to implement for years, and never have. It just takes some time for planning the month ahead and using some way to track your progress (as accountability).
Autumn gives me the inspiration to write a lot more. Maybe it's the start of a new school year that I still love coupled with the cosier vibes of the season when cooler air comes sweaters are needed along with hot drinks, and books go along with that to me. You need a stack of books to read when Autumn comes around, right? I just picked up this book about C.S. Lewis and his writing life.
I liked this note from the author:
"The classic works, reading, the life of escaping into great fictive worlds defined Lewis's most formative years. But Lewis didn't merely long to read great literature, as his many letters to his father show; he wanted people to talk to about them."
A I mentioned, tea is essential. I drink it each morning with some breakfast, and herbal tea each evening after dinner at a minimum. Sometimes I will drink tea other times of day if I have time to enjoy it. My hands-down choice for breakfast is the Bird & Blend Chocolate Digestives tea (from the UK). It's black tea that perfectly pairs with breakfast, or anytime later. It's cosy, warm, and perfectly flavored. I'm totally obsessed.
In quiet anticipation of the coming cooler air, I found this fair isle cardigan that I can't wait to wear. I've been looking for a fair isle sweater for years and never found one that I liked, until now. It's invoking all the Autumn colours and darker tones that will go into the winter season, plus it gives off a little sense of the bookish nature, to be worn with jeans or skirts. Now I am really eager for that cooler weather to come!
I have lots of different notebooks for all kinds of different ways I write. The softcover Moleskine pocket notebooks are perfect for taking with me everywhere I go, for jotting poems, thoughts, notes, ideas. This is my new one to replace my now full little spiral pocket notebook that I got in Oxford. I usually lean toward lined pages, but I went with dotted pages for this time to see how I like it. I think I will enjoy it, and I am not super particular about the pages (blank, lined, dotted), though maybe I will be a dotted fan now, other than I never want a wide ruled notebook (no wide ruled!).
