Endings and beginnings

Its been a good summer and its not over yet. The days may be getting shorter but there is still warmth in the sun and flowers in the garden.

Just in the last few days though the end of summer feeling has been growing. The dew is heavy on the grass in the morning and takes longer to disappear in the sun so that wellies are needed for my early morning allotment visits rather than the canvas shoes I've been wearing all summer.

Around me the combine harvesters have been busy and the fields are left with the stubble remaining after the crop has been harvest. An end to the summer crop but the field now ready for the next one, an ending soon to be followed by a beginning.

The pattern is repeated all around. Lots of seed heads with ripe seeds ready to go and chance their luck that they end up in a suitable place to germinate and produce a new plant next year.

The end of summer, beginning of autumn is often seen as a time of winding down and of decay as plants shed leaves and die back but amongst this are thousands of potential new beginnings.

We have endings and beginnings at home this year as our eldest son leaves home for university, ending the time that our family lives under one roof but beginning a new way of life for him as he moves away to live on his own. Life for us will be different too as we adjust to being a family of three rather than four.

So as we busy ourselves with lists of things to do, things to buy and things to take, I am trying to make sure I focus more on the new beginnings rather than the endings.