A New Notebook - The Adventures Begin

A new notebook – What better time to begin, to turn to a fresh page, to welcome a new era for us, a fresh beginning, than as a beautiful season is in mid flow, a new month is here and indeed a time when Nature begins a ‘new year’.

Autumn - that beautiful season of yellow ochre, saffron and sienna, off-set by the dark green of the Yew forests that, here in West Sussex, are scattered along the slopes of the Southern Downs. It is the time when Sycamore and Beech, Field Maple and Ash exchange their green robes for multi-coloured hues, when silver seeded Travelers Joy and Bryony’s trailing scarlet berries twinkle like daytime stars after a sudden October shower, as a rainbow climbs up, up above the half-naked Ash tree. In the, now later, dawn light, dew spangled cobwebs hang, draped like fairy sized washing lines along wire and post and rail, whilst red spotted fungi, ink caps and parasols appear, as if by magic, below jewel hung hedgerows. Beech mast, cobnuts, polished brown conkers, and chestnuts for roasting, litter path and track, and acorns crunch beneath your boots as you walk along a woodland ride. Parties of Longtail Tits swing through autumn tidied gardens scented with bonfire smoke, damp compost and moss whilst charms of Goldfinch twitter in the topmost branches of silver barked birch above. Such an abundance of beauty to fill the senses, but nothing announces Autumn quite like the croaking cry of a clockwork, strutting pheasant from meadow or field edge or the greedy screeching of acorn searching Jays, and of course the echo of the Fallow Buck’s bellowed challenge across a bracken carpeted woodland.

When, however, does Autumn begin? Just what distinguishes the start? When we were at school the beginning of September heralded the Autumn term, September, October and November, after we had watched the huge red chugging harvesters march across the yellow corn fields and the summer heat and sudden storms were behind us.

Followers of the old ways would say it is the astrological dates that dictate, tracking the sun, from around the 21st September through to 21st December, the shortest day, Winter Solstice and the returning light, with Samhain, the old Celtic new year – All Souls, All Saints Day, All Hallows Eve (Halloween) – whichever is your preference, marking the middle of the season when nature’s fresh bounty, now buried deep, begins a new growing cycle.

Maybe Autumn just slips in quietly when she feels the time is right, when her wild harvest is ripe for foraging and her leaves are ready to blanket the ground and cozy down to keep and nurture the swelling seeds, throughout frosts and chills, until the soil warms once more. When white ribbons of gulls follow the plough and the hare’s long-legged gait carries him along the furrow, straight and true, to the sound of competing Fallow Bucks hidden deep in the forest.

Whenever the season really begins, here we are, it is Autumn, she is here now, today, beautiful and bountiful with all her surprises and joys to discover. Yes, a new year is close, nature’s new year, not that familiar all-singing all-dancing sparking celebrations of the first day of a new calendar year, but a different New Year, the beginning of the lead up to the shortest day, Winter Solstice and the returning light, Nature’s cozy time. A time for long walks in swirling leaves, bringing home pocketed treasures, in mornings either sharp and bright or pale with mist; lunch times perfect for a fireside pint and a pie; armchair evenings with notebooks and novels beneath velvet skies where a hunter’s moon makes the Barn Owl appear ghostly. As we approach the middle of this season and the shortening of daylight hours, October slips away on a darkening night and we light candles, lay an extra place at table to welcome any passing souls who may wish to visit. Our home is filled with fairy lights, warmth, a seasonal feast. There is a cut glass decanter containing fine amber Mead, that glows and flows in the candlelight, ruby red wine, sage, onion and apple scents complete the scene as we toast departed fellows and welcome in the ‘old’ New Year. It is the season to gather in, to prepare, rest and restore, to nurture the accumulation of Nature’s hopes for future growth before Winter comes.

So, it is here that this new notebook now begins, to be filled with words, sometimes artwork and photographs, descriptions of the adventures, the wanderings and ponderings of us, The Artist and The Druid.

Thank you for joining us, for taking the time to read this first entry in our new notebook, we hope you have enjoyed these few words and might follow us along the way as we journey through our nature year.

Words and pictures by the Artist and the Druid ©

October/November 2022