There’s a poignancy about the change of seasons.
Something in the air, an uncertainty, a frisson, it’s almost excitement. Or perhaps dread. The last summer berries are out and the leaves are starting to fall from the sage old oak at the back of the garden.
Leaves falling like yellowed love letters to the now past Summer.
It’s almost the end of the school holidays and next week both girls are back into their routines at college and at high school. Son is taking a working break and has found a job at the local golf course working as a barman until Christmas. I was delighted to hear that he was working behind the bar, because it’s the kind of job that you can pick up anywhere in the world. It’s flexible work, perfect for our elastic lives. And when I told him that he needed to be chatty and a bit of a character behind the bar and my Englishman piped up that if he was chatty he might even pick up a date, he laughed.
It’s been a big summer for him. He got his grades back for his A levels and considering he suffered a major depression through the last year and barely attended college, he did miraculously well. Who gets an A in advanced maths with only attending college for 50% of the course? He snogged a girl at a party, he made some tough decisions about university and what to do next and he found a job and has started saving for university.
Growing up and going out into the world…
The girls are ready to go back to school, I think. There’s only so much lying around on their beds playing on the DS or watching YouTube videos a sharp mind can handle. And they both have sharp minds. It’s been a disappointing summer weather wise for them, but at least we had the excitement of the Olympics. Dark Princess has struggled this year and is disappointed with her results at school. We had a cry, and then a yell, and then another yell, and I hope like hell that things improve for her in the next school year.
I can’t say I’ll miss British summers when I leave here. Every summer we’ve had has unfortunately been uncharacteristically wet and cool. For the past four years! Every time I suggest that perhaps summer isn’t like summer I’ve known in the past, the locals have said ‘oh but it isn’t always like this..’
As for us, my Englishman and I, well we’ve just got through the summer. I’m ready to have some space back that I can call my own. Just even being able to come home and be the only one here for a few hours a day and to be able to hear myself thinking will be helpful. It’s so cramped that when everyone’s home there isn’t any privacy at all. It’s been a difficult summer in some respects with my Englishman not being well and the weight of a big decision hanging over us.
We’ll get there. Once more into the breach and all…At least I think we’re closer now. Testing times does that for you, I think.
We’ve loved our adventures in Italy and we’re looking forward to adventures in Portugal next week. We’re attending the Travel Bloggers Unite conference in Porto which looks like it’s going to be very interesting, if not a tad nerve-wracking. People always assume I’m way more outgoing than I am really!
And even though it is the last of the summer wine here in England, at least we’ll be able to linger in summer sunshine and warm temperatures for a a week longer, and we’ll be able to toast the passing season with a full bodied glass of finest Porto Port wine. They say that Port wine is a sensual deep rich wine, the perfect celebratory glass.
As much as anything that toast will be to perseverance and to the changing seasons, and the hope the new season brings.
Do you look forward to the end of the summer and find it a time for re-evaluation and reflection?
Image: Taste Portugal.
