Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells

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If you have a chance, stop by the Vøringsfossen, a powerful waterfall with a hanging bridge. I went there during Norway’s autumn and I loved the colors! These are responsible for the vibrant ambers, reds and yellows of autumn. The chemicals responsible are types of flavonoids, carotenoids and anthocyanins.

Nearly didn't finish. I don't have too many of those. Iyer is a really talented writer. But ugh. Most of his statements about this culture are total b. s., or should I say more diplomatically, not at all my experience having lived in Japan for three decades. Chlorophyll is the chemical which makes tree leaves green and as it declines other chemicals become more prominent in the leaves. Compared to Soft Summer, the colours are warmer but otherwise similar – both are medium in value and muted. Summer’s effect on Soft Autumn is to cool the colours slightly and make them softer. Iyer clearly revels in these cohabitations. As he says of his chosen country: “We cherish things, Japan has always known, precisely because they cannot last; it’s their frailty that adds sweetness to their beauty… Autumn poses the question we all have to live with: How to hold on to the things we love even though we know that we and they are dying. How to see the world as it is, yet find light within that truth.”Due to its primary colour aspect, this Soft Autumn has the least tolerance for brightness. Consequently, its colours are low in chroma and are not saturated at all. The book grows more intimate, interestingly enough, in passages about the couple spending time with the Dalai Lama (whom Iyer has known for years). When Hiroko confides to the Tibetan, “I want to tell you: my father passed away this year,” the Dalai Lama asks questions, then “steps forth and holds her for a long, long time.” The scene and Hiroko herself suddenly become more accessible and relatable. My girls start talking about Halloween in about May – nearly as early as Christmas! This, and October half term, is the highlight of their autumn.

I don’t know where to begin to tell you about this wonderful book- there is so much about life in it. Its very rich and says a lot and yet it is very simple. And simply done, yet it’s not simple. But is simple if understood in that way. Like the famous Ozu Tokyo Story movie. PI references watching that movie in the book and it influences him. His wife says it’s boring. And can’t fathom how he could write a book on those subjects and bore people. Towards the end of September, you can start seeing the Northern Lights in the Arctic Circle. Weather in Norway in September A cluster of small buttons in deep purple-pink between September and November. 60 cm/2ft. Bred and named by Clive Hester in Gloucestershire and very pretty.

Originally a shortening of the phrase fall of the leaf, the phrase was common in England in the 17th century. Did you know some of these chemicals are the same ones that give carrots (beta-carotenes) and egg yolks (luteins) their colours? 4. People born in Autumn live longer Interwoven into these everyday, sometimes downright mundane, routines of life, is a very vivid, very intriguing image of Japan and Japanese society. Sometimes, occasionally, it reads a little like the travelogues Pico Iyer is so known for: the descriptions of the maples, aflame with fall foliage. The cars lined up while tourists throng by the thousands to view the leaves. The shrines, the stone lanterns, the persimmons. Skip the bland chains, London is brimming with fancy cinemas where you can snuggle up to watch a film in comfort (not to mention style). One of the most stunning signs of autumn is the turning of the leaves. The shorter days are a sign to trees to begin to prepare for winter.

Fun after dark can happen a lot earlier in the day during the autumn months, so why not try a bit of stargazing with your kids? We love the exhilaration of high ropes and have been doing them with the kids since they were a few years old. The youngest kids can to do courses in England is usually around three – that’s when we first took Baby to Go Ape. Some properties are also now offering limited and time controlled access to their country houses. Search and book your National Trust day out this autumn.Generally, monochromatic colour combinations will look best on Soft Autumns. This might make other seasons look washed out, but on a Soft Summer, it is nothing but flattering.

This time of year, you can encounter a wide range of temperatures and types of weather. From summery vibes in September, or sometimes October, to snow in November, but also in October, especially in the mountains. Yeah, we’re kind of obsessed with the gothic beauty of London’s Magnificent Seven Cemeteries – the seven grand cemeteries built on what was then the outskirts of London in the Victorian era. In this book, Pico Iyer finds himself undertaking such a walk, under the light-heavy shadows of autumn. I sometimes wonder if we were to be consistently aware of the impermanence of things that surround us, would that have a bearing on our interactions with others. In particular, with our loved ones. Would we be more perceptive and considerate than we usually are while holding their presence and taking their support for granted. We’ve already talked about stomping around Hampstead Heath, but if you’re looking for more inspiration, the Regent’s Canal Towpath is a beaut at this time of year – it wends its way through some of London’s prettiest areas including Primrose Hill, Camden and Little Venice.

Containing the most muted and toned-down of the Summer family’s colours, individuals who fall into the Soft Autumn category may very easily be mistaken for Soft Summers. Both colour seasons are very similar, and the distinctions are subtle. There are some lovely observations on the autumn of life here as Pico Iyer joins his wife Hiroko to farewell her just-deceased father, tend to her mother, and contemplate what it all adds up to. Recalling the loss of his parents' home in California to fire, he writes: What do we have to hold on to? Only the certainty that nothing will go according to design; our hopes are newly built wooden houses, sturdy until someone drops a cigarette or match. As I climbed all the way up to our house, the day after everything in our lives was reduced to rubble, I saw that everything that could be replaced--furniture, clothes, books--was, by definition, worthless. The only things that mattered were the things that were gone forever. (p.202) He doesn't say what things were gone forever, and here, as occasionally elsewhere, I found the point a bit hard to fathom. For this reason, I grow mine among similarly late-flowering plants including colchicums and nerines, which look especially good with pink and magentas chrysanthemums. When to divide Though they’re beautiful at any time of year, autumn is when they really shine – think crumbling stone and winding walkways sheltering under and covered by a golden carpet of leaves.