I don’t always start my day listening to radio 4 but sometimes I feel the need to ‘check in’ and see what’s happening in the world! As I was dressing, guest poet Christine De Luca read out a poem by Edwin Morgan about October, and although I’m not a great reader of poetry this one really caught my attention. I had given the word ‘October’ to my meditation group last week as the starting point for a ‘Stream of consciousness’ or ‘Free writing’ exercise. It was interesting how most of us shared some negativity towards October, particularly as a signal that something good was ending and something not so good was coming – dark evenings, long nights, cold wet weather etc. For me October is ‘leafy’ and windy and wet and mushy – dampness, mould and mildew come to mind too! But this poem really showed October is a positive light, a really ‘glass nearly full’ outlook…

October Sun by Edwin Morgan –

Get the sun out, get it shining!  It’s only
October, and only a tenth of the leaves
are yellowing.
Prod a few white clouds out of their beds and
get them billowing!
We can sit a while and not batten down the
hatches for a gale following.
We can clink a glass and swirl the wine and
still not rush the swallowing.
We can smoke in a moveless dear afternoon
till the late light spreads its hallowing
Over everything
And then we must bring
The day to rest with good ease, recollections,
far thoughts, love and dallying.

After hearing the poem I decided to venture out with the dogs for a nice Autumnal walk at Cothill Quarry. It was clear but windy, the tail end of hurricane Gonzalo, so we headed off towards the woods for a little shelter. I was thinking about an Instagram post I’d seen while having my morning cuppa tagged ‘thistimelastyear’ and felt sure it was around this time last year I had discovered the amazing red and white spotted mushrooms next to one of the paths. I headed in that direction determined that I would find them again. Once on the path I walked slowly, staring hard into the undergrowth. It wasn’t long until I caught a glimpse of red and backtracked to investigate. Sure enough it was Alice’s Magic Mushroom!

I looked around to see if there were more and discovered mushrooms everywhere…

I was so excited and tried to get the pugs to share my wonder but they just seemed bemused as to why we weren’t moving on! It felt so unreal I wondered if it was possible that I had manifested these mushrooms to be here because I wanted so badly to find them? The wind was beginning to pick up and the noise of the dancing trees and their rustling leaves was riotous. Just for a few minutes I was in my own private wonderland. So thank you Maz Hawes, Radio 4 and Christine De Luca for inspiring me to get out this morning and appreciate how amazing autumn can be. 🙂