Autumn Foxtrot

The arrival of Autumn always needs celebrating, so here is a little piece to meet the moment.

I'm the kind of person who, on the first hazy day of September, can't help internally reciting "SEASON OF MISTS AND MELLOW FRUITFULNESS" in a fruity, sing-song (but still crucially internal) bellow.

Blue sloes and red rosehips peppering the banks and hedgerows.

Walking along a tunnel-like path on Warsash Common recently, I started to pick out the bright berries in clusters and sprays.  The pattern became a dance that I had to do something with.  I worked it into a little seasonal paean for the flashes of colour in the hedgerows.

Now that I've got going, I have some words left over - tart, crisp, ripening, rusty, juice-fattened, button-bright and fulgent.  I could spend all day leafing through the autumnal lexicon but I'll stop there.