Autumn

First day of a new month. It is, perhaps, the last fine day before Autumn brings a few days of westerly winds and cold rain. But this morning, over my meditative coffee, I was reminded of Keats' Mellow Fruitfulness. The rising Sun lit one of the few apples remaining on the tree in the very front garden, heavy with overnight dew.

It's a strange thing; living in the shadow of rising fascism across the world, a self-declared criminal government, Covid-19 pandemic chaos, an insane Brexit and impending or even ongoing climate change... sitting in the garden sipping hot fresh-ground coffee, my life feels disconnected from all this unreality.

October has two full moons this year. Tonight is the Harvest Moon, so called because it allowed farmers to work late into the night. Looking around the village most of the harvest is already in and the fields are all stubble. At Samhain there will be another full moon in October, a blue moon.