The time between summer and winter is special. Nature is full of colors and aromas – glorious farewell to summer. A brief moment where we are blessed with sunshine, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. And kindly eases us into cold winter.
Autumn always sneaks up silently. I have tried for years to catch that moment, but I always miss it so it kind of feels like one day we are having summer. Maybe a bit chilly, but since summers aren’t super hot here anyway – there’s hard to tell a difference. And then one day you wake up and there it is. Colorful farewell to summer! And that special autumn smell in the air. A mix of crisp fresh air with ripe fruit, mushrooms, and vegetables. I know it’s not possible in the city, but still… I can smell it in the air. When I finally get my own home I will put up a camera for nature – just to catch do trees really turn yellow-red-orange with a blink of an eye overnight. Does colorful autumn is painted overnight?
The time between summer and winter is special. Nature is full of colors and aromas – glorious farewell to summer. A brief moment where we are blessed with sunshine, a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. And kindly eases us into cold winter.
Autumn always sneaks up silently. I have tried for years to catch that moment, but I always miss it so it kind of feels like one day we are having summer. Maybe a bit chilly, but since summers aren’t super hot here anyway – there’s hard to tell a difference. And then one day you wake up and there it is. Colorful farewell to summer! And that special autumn smell in the air. A mix of crisp fresh air with ripe fruit, mushrooms, and vegetables. I know it’s not possible in the city, but still… I can smell it in the air. When I finally get my own home I will put up a camera for nature – just to catch do trees really turn yellow-red-orange with a blink of an eye overnight. Does colorful autumn is painted overnight?
This year summer was extremely hot. For us. We even have a few songs about how Estonian summer lasts 10 days. And we have to be at work each of these days. For most of my life, it’s been like approximately two weeks of good summer days. Where it doesn’t rain and the temperature is at least 20 degrees (Celsius). The last few years have gone better and this year we had almost whole 3 months of summer where we got to cook in 25-35 degrees. I know that there are a lot of places where even 25 degrees are cold. But for us, cold means -20 degrees. So we were cooked. A lot of people took it hard, especially older people. Air conditioning isn’t popular around here and since most of the year we have cold and very cold weather – our houses are built to keep the warmth.
Autumn begins
So I was sure – this year I will catch the moment when autumn begins. When it will start to get cold and autumn can’t sneak up. Still, we had a few colder days, then a heatwave, and then I discovered that it’s pitch dark when I drive to work. Overnight. and when lights came up – someone had painted all the trees and bushes. The road was boarded with red maples, yellow birches, and leaves of all colors.
I am kind of sad that we don’t have decorating traditions like other countries. Don’t get me wrong. We do have traditions, but they are mainly practical and mostly about getting ready for winter. Close up summer homes, making final rounds in woods and on the fields to gather goods for winter. Berries, vegetables, fruit – whatever we can get our hands on – has to be preserved, pickled, or salted to eat during winter. Cut our lawns one last time, gather all the leaves and branches. Prepare your yard for winter – so you cover plants that don’t take cold too well, and you take inside flowers that might die if it’s even a little chilly. But no pumpkin cravings or artistic arrangements of leaves, or branches.
Only nature dresses up in color to celebrate a party – farewell to summer.
More diligent women are picking all the goods themselves from woods and fields, sorting the goods, and preparing all kinds of goodies. I hope I have this change in the future.
