August

Is the end of August the real ending to the year? The final throes of summer; which this year is a season hanging on in a triumphant last hurrah. Today is sunny and warm, windless. The apple trees in my garden have started to windfall and as I lay outside catching the last glimpses of sun, I hear them thwump on the grass. I have started stewing the apples, adding the special Danish vanilla sugar powder that my Aunt routinely sends us. September stands on the horizon with a back-to-school tone, a 'bouquet of sharpened pencils' as Nora Ephron said. I feel like I should be making resolutions now, instead of in January. In January I will be weary after months of winter and 4pm sunsets and Christmas. Oh My God Christmas. I can not even countenance it. Give me late summer and early Autumn any day, but I will leave winter and all of its limitations, thanks.