The October Garden

October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter.

There’s something transformational and perhaps melancholy about October, captured perfectly in WB Yeats’s poem The Wild Swans at Coole, the first poem I ever properly analysed at A level, and can still recite decades later.

October is summer clothes paired with sweaters and thicker socks, whilst you rake the leaves (or jump in them) and dark evening walks that calm the mind and promote better sleep. The Romantics knew a thing or two about awe-inspiring Nature and a moonlit walk is just the job to make you feel part of something, connected. There are still bulbs to plant and the garden to tidy and put to bed for Winter. Summer salads and smoothies give way to hearty stews and soups; the winter blankets come out to snuggle underneath and as we recently installed a new wood burner, on a particularly cold night it is tempting to put a match to a few logs.