Missing Autumn (Ten Months On)

I think I can finally say the summer heat is over. We've had a "cooler" week. I am at last able to do the school run without being reduced to a puddle. It's a cool 24 degrees.

Needless to say to be saying this sounds and feels ridiculous knowing I celebrated a warm 15 degrees after a cold British winter. Perspective: It's bonkers!

I am missing Autumn and it's beauty quite badly. Many of you already know of my love affair with the season. It just doesn't exist in Malta. And yet from what I gather Autumn is long gone in the UK already and there's talk of snow next month.

I do not miss the snow. Snow was always pretty in the UK for the first hour. Then, by the time the train delays and cancellations, and the deliveries that never make it, and the panic buying and empty milk, bread and everything shelves... once all that hits (within a day of the first snowflake settling on the ground), the love is long gone.

So there's one positive. I am now - almost ten months after we moved away - more able to balance things out. My brain also stopped tricking me somewhere along the way. I no longer think to myself randomly that I should pop into the Deaf Cat later on today for one of their orange and cranberry muffins.... only to then be disappointed when I remember the Deaf Cat is no longer a quick walk down my road. I no longer wake up fancying a stroll into Chatham (yes that's the extent to which I miss it all) or a drive to Bluewater (although, ask anyone, I don't think I'll ever stop missing Bluewater... and I can't bear to hear another person tell me, filled with awe, that The Point is huge...)

I do find myself missing Dobbies this time of year. I really fancy having a leisurely walk around our local store picking out some new Christmas decorations and letting Emily, and by now Adam too, drop by to say hello to the fish and the rabbits and chickens, all huddled up in coats and hats and mittens.

I'm not sure why I actually own hats and gloves any longer.We might need them one day in the middle of January when it's a cruel, humid 10 degrees.

I miss many things, still. I'm sure I always will. But ten months on, it's becoming easier to accept, easier to deal with. Although I have to admit, looking up the UK links for this post and dropping by the websites pulled at my heartstrings a little... perhaps still some way to go.