Autumn by Christina

We’re delighted to share a beautiful autumn poem, written by one of the people we support, Christina, from our Stourbridge Community. It captures the colours, moods, and magic of the season, and reflects the connection with nature that lies at the heart of our Nature-Based Therapies and Skills Programmes.

Through these programmes, people enjoy meaningful experiences outdoors—exploring the changing seasons, learning new skills, and discovering the calming, restorative power of the natural world. This poem reminds us just how much the seasons can inspire creativity, reflection, and joy.

A U T U M N By Christina Burdett

By the end of August most of the harvest has been gathered in and the farmers start to plough the fields.

The mushroom season has begun and many different mushrooms are springing up in all sorts of different places.

The field mice are now faced with both prosperity and danger. Cats and stoats can very easily pounce on them, and the field mice are
vulnerable. The gardens have a bigger number of mice in them than ever because the field mice nests have been laid bare by the cutter and binder. They have no cover. They have come pouring into the garden to seek shelter and food.

This time of year, there is a feast of different berries for lots of flies, wasps, starlings, green finches and bullfinches to come and enjoy the fruit. They eat a great many blackberries.

By the end of July, the swifts have already left and migrated. The swallows and the Housemartins and the Sandmartin begin to get ready and gather on roof ridges and telegraph wires to prepare themselves for their long flight back to South Africa. They make their long flights
back towards the end of September and in October, where they spend the winter. They fly at varying heights according to the wind.

Flocks of swallows sometimes can be seen from aeroplane at 9,500 feet and sometimes they can be seen skimming low just above the
waves. They will fly 5,000 miles to south Africa and the journey will take them about six weeks. They will fly during daylight hours covering about 200 miles a day and at nightime will roost in reed beds on the way.

It came a very dangerous long journey. Sometimes the flock can run into storms, and some birds will collapse from exhaustion because they’re just become too tired to fly. Sometime the flock will pass thorough areas like the Sahara Desert, where food is very scarce. Swallows can die of starvation if they have not built up enough fat reserves in their body. These birds fly back to South Africa every Autumn because there are not enough insects here for them to eat during our winters in the British Isles. They return again to the British Isles back in the spring April after winter has gone. They return to our shores to discover that at last there is land beneath them instead of sea.

Elder trees are covered in berries at this time of year which attract birds like Bullfinches. The Mountain Ash tree and the Rowan tree also have a rich crop of berries.

After the long summer holiday, the children go back to school again to the Autumn term and they are faced with new challenges with their activities and their schoolwork.

Everywhere gardeners are very busy harvesting their crops on their allotments. Crops have to be harvested so that the food does not go to waste.

As the temperature drops and the weather starts to get colder soon uninvited insects can creep into people’s homes, such as spotted ladybirds, Crane Flys, Giant house spiders and Harlequin Ladybirds. They are looking for warm places to rest in the corners and ceilings of our houses.

Quite a lot of animals prepare for hibernation at this time of year – Hedgehogs, bats, dormice, Bumblebee Queens, Ladybirds, Frogs and Grass Snakes.

Busy housewives have their work cut out to fill their larders with lots of jars of Bramble jelly, Crab Apple jelly, jam, chutney, pickles, bottled fruit which makes a nice store for the winter.

One can get lovely Indian Summer weather in the month of September. However the mornings are getting a bit darker, and the birdsong quietens down, the nights get cooler and it gets darker earlier each week in the evenings. One notices the leaves tinting and turning colour in different areas on the trees.