Season of mellow fruitfulness brings beautiful vistas

The season of mellow fruitfulness again swings round, the sun grows yellow, and the sky, when blue, is sharp and clear.

The blue haze we see in summer skies has blown away. In deserts, the heat fades out the blue. Blue is the colour of cold, and cold skies are blue skies. I like the sharpness of autumn vistas; I think many people do.

Much depends on location, of course. A winter view in Donegal when the ground is hard and dusted in frost and the trees decked in icicles may be quite different from the outlook on the same day on a West Cork lane with withered leaves hanging like black rags on bushes, and mud underfoot. Things sparkle in frost, and ice twinkles like live stars in winter sunlight. So, give me the hard winter, the hard ground, and a heavy jacket or a feisty walk to combat the cold, and I’m as happy in winter as at any other