Samhain
When summer's end is nighing
And skies at evening cloud,
I muse on change and fortune
And all the feats I vowed
- A.E Houseman (Oh, the delightful Mr Houseman!)
Samhain is such a beautiful word!
It is Gaelic and means "Summer's end". I had to look up its pronunciation.... Gaelic words are notoriously difficult to pronounce.... apparently it is SOW-IN (Irish)..... SOW-EEN (Welsh) and SAV-EN (Scottish). You choose....!
There are Gaelic festivals for "Samhain" to usher in the winter and marking the end of summer...what a joyful positive way to think. When one lives in Scandinavia, having a festival to actually usher in the winter after the short wonderful summer is hardly on anyone's mind....! But may be one should change it all around...and think thus.
I awoke with a shock a few days ago.... the first morning frost ! The garden outside my bedroom window was a shimmering pale white, my poor sunflowers drooping miserably in the frosty cold.... aaah, yes...winter knocking tentatively. Letting us know it is near.
It is of course the end of summer but if we bid our time we shall meet again: Summer and Us. So, saying goodbye to the warm balmy summer winds is not for ever.
Autumn and winter have joys of their own...if we just stop to look...
It is a time when Nature can't quite make up its mind whether to be warm and pleasant or cold and frosty. Will the sun come up or will it remain grey? Should I wear a jacket or just a thin sweater? Should I wear my wellies or Converse?
In the end it is wellies and jacket (just to be sure, y'know) and the sun shines smartly at you making you stand in the town square looking quite a nincompoop!
But oh! Everywhere I look there is delight.... chestnuts on the ground from the grand chestnut trees in the square behind the church.... the vee of geese honking overhead... (lucky chaps, en route to sunny España!) .... the "summer's end berries" lingon, rosehip, rowan berries and a myriad others lighting up the woodlands... the smell of early apples, heather and hay from the fields.... the mists settling lightly obscuring the road I know is there... and in the early evening, the orange moon with rooks flying across.
Its not quite autumn yet - nor is it summer...
It is a magical time - Samhain. A time when one can read stories about fairies, sprites, goblins and elves - and believe they may actually be right there at the bottom of the garden. A thresh hold of No-Seasons-Land when Time seems to stand still....not wanting to let go and yet drawn inexorably to wintry-scapes.
Here are a few photos.
Signing off for now.
C.S!
(Cresat Scientia)
