Living in the country I often think about the nature of light. In a town there is so much artificial light that it becomes a question of wether the sun is shining or not, wheras in the country I notice the variations in the light even on sunny days. In autumn this becomes all the more pronounced, because light takes on a completely different quality as the sun begins to hang lower in the sky.
The first thing I notice around the end of September is how much warmer the light is in the mornings and evenings, and then that as autumn progresses the brightness of the light at midday stands in even starker kontrast to the warmth earlier and later. In summer even the morning light is quite cold compared to now.
The other thing that becomes so pronounced and noticable is how the shadows become longer as we move into autumn. Where there was light on the lawn there is now shadow as the sun hangs lower in the sky and its rays get caught up in the surrounding trees. There will be very bright spots of light between the long shadows at all times of the day, which to me makes garden photography complicated since the contrast becomes too pronounced.
Still, I enjoy the change of season and the quiet that comes with autumn. There is a stillness about it as everything slowly decays. I plant bulbs in masses, knowing full well that when they come up in spring it will look completely different to how I envisioned it. In the typical autumn activities such as raking the leaves and picking mushrooms there is an acceptance of the settling in for winter. Others begin to complain about the darkness falling earlier each evening, while I secretly enjoy it. Perhaps it is the living on the terms of the natural light that is available outdoors that I have stopped minding the darkness? In town I always used to hate it, but now I think that perhaps I simply disliked it never being properly dark.
Others are also preparing for the coming winter, and often when I wake up in the morning I find deer in the garden. They have been feasting on the acorns below the big oak tree, and just flap thair ears when they see me. Normally I would chase them away, but this one month of the year we co-exist quite peacefully. I don't begrudge them a square meal that doesn't involve decimating my plants. After all, winter is coming.
