Summers End.

Glass Poppies on eBay

I always feel a sense of loss at this time of the year.  August is giving way to September, children are getting ready to go back to school, the leaves lose their glossy greens and start turning to russet red and gold, apples fall with a dull thud on to the mossy ground that is the floor of the orchard and the squirrels in the trees above my head are squabbling over whose acorn the precious Autumn harvest belongs too.

Fishermen, once large clusters of jolly voices, their bodies clad in waders, waterproof jackets tied around waists as they struggled across the fields with fishing rods, tackle boxes and lunches, their chatter causing the young calves in the field with their mother's to pay attention, and the mother's their udders full of life nourishing milk to glance worryingly over their young.  Now the fields are quiet.  The calves have grown and left their mothers; the same mother's that now lazily chew the cud and swish their tails at the flies.

The potatoes in the top field have been harvested and the ground ploughed; long straight furrows of rich brown earth.  The birds no longer in frenzied flight behind the working tractors instead they use a gentle sweep before landing to pick over the surface of the field.  The tractor is parked in the corner of the farm yard.  Dusty and still.

Its the sign's of Summers End.  They make me mourn for the long days that are filled with sun shine, flowers bursting into colourful displays and of watching my dogs take long splashing swims in the river.

Glass Poppies on eBay