Noticing Autumn

Lately I have had to awake early to go to work, this means by 6.30am I must be at my bus stop. For the first time ever, I had to eat my porridge with maple syrup and pecans there the other day. As is wont to happen when I am busily preparing myself to leave for work on time, I suddenly need to do something I haven't factored into my preparations, like clean up after a child or an animal mess, this time it was the cat.

Sylvester (the cat I am cat-sitting) has been recovering from an allergy so that meant keeping him confined in a room with an Elizabethean collar for a few days. It was my task to deal with cat litter, and that morning there was some other material (vomit) which meant I then ran out of time to eat the too hot porridge I had prepared, so I threw it into a bowl with a lid and took off with my backpack and a spoon.

My actual intentions were to eat my breakfast once I made it to work as I would have about 20minutes spare before I had to take off again. However, once at the bus stop I checked my watch and found that I was 3 minutes late for the bus. Two minutes later, I figured I had missed the bus completely so I decided that by the time the next one came in 25 minutes I would have time to eat my now warm porridge while I looked over the park opposite the bus stop.

The grounds of the park were streaked a glistening green and brown, which was made more obvious due to it having been freshly mown along with the smattering of rain that night. Alone, I ate my porridge in peace away from the frenzy that P was in the midst of now at home, having to prepare everyone to vacate the house in one hit, getting them dressed, teeth brushed, lunches prepared and packed, school notes followed up, snacks, nappies, drinking vessles and changes of clothes for Gabriella and no doubt something will happen that he won't account for.

I enjoyed my few quiet minutes taking in the early morning vista, couples and singles walking their dogs, ladies enjoying a group walk. The morning was crisp and with the brilliant blue of the sky above the native trees of the parklands it could only mean that everyone there would be enjoying the fresh start to their day.

The enforced waiting for my bus gave me time to recall how for the last 2 weeks, I have been waking around 4 am and noticing a chill in the air and instead of the cooler air forcing me to stay and snuggle with P and further into my bed it has had the opposite effect and I have been propelled from the warmth of our bed and into the cool dark morning.

Once up, I tiptoe into the children's room and gently graze their arms with my hand to gauge how cool they may now be having slept largely inactive for the past 8 hours or so. My touch enables me to determine the right bedding to cover them with, a blanket, a doona or a sheet? Lately it has been their heavier bedding. It will be much easier for me once I am able to put them to bed in warmer clothing knowing that they won't become too hot during the evening or that the coolness finally warrants keeping a heater on low for the evening. But for now the climate dictates I hedge my bets, cooler clothing after their baths, and my addition of warming bedding come the early morning.

Despite this regular interruption to my sleep, I so love this time of year, it smacks of Spring except for the fact that we won't have any blooming plants- my virtual Spring. Though even more enjoyable because the suffocating humidity and virulent heat of Summer is not the distant memory it is by the time actual Spring rolls around in September.

It is time when physical activity can occur almost any time of the day instead of the very early and/or the very late. More warmed vegetables for dinner and less salads, soon we will be enjoying the first of many soups, rissottos and slowed cooked meals.

Autumn, I will have to take some photographs soon though I know it will be difficult to capture how a subtle change in weather has made me feel so good to be alive.