Summer's Fond Farewell

September is here, conjuring up images of blackberry picking, falling leaves, and fond farewells to our feathery summer visitors.  The tourists will soon begin to leave, the sun's rays will be less powerful, the weather will slowly turn and, in only three weeks the night will be longer than the day.  I always find a distinctive atmosphere in autumn; it's melancholy, a time to plan and prepare for the cold winter ahead, and to reflect on the beautiful summer now passed.  

Our summer this year has really been focussed on home, exploring the best that the area has to offer under almost perpetually sunny skies.  It should come as no great surprise, then, that our final outing of August took us to Daddyhole Plain in Torquay, to watch the RAF's fantastic Red Arrows.

Now, a red arrow pilot was just about the first thing I wanted to be when I was small, and I remember having a collection of pictures, stickers and books all about the aerobatic team.  Many times in my childhood I had been taken down to Torbay (and occasionally Dawlish) to watch this thrilling spectacle, which never got boring or dulled in my mind.  Even this week, seeing the performance for the first time in four or five years, I could feel those childhood pangs of excitement bubbling inside me.  For Lizzie, meanwhile, this was her first real Red Arrow experience, and one that I'm pretty sure she was impressed by, as the jets looped over the bay, flying upside-down,  both over our heads and beneath us as we stood on the edge of our promontory and strained for a sight of the aeroplanes, flitting in and out of view from every direction.  What a show, well up to the usual standard and every bit as good as I always remembered.

So, in a final burst of exhilaration and energy, the Red Arrows have provided the final showpiece of the season, and it feels as though the curtain has come down on the summer.  Keats' Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness is ready to begin, but we move on with the memory of the most fantastic summer, a real celebration of life in our green and pleasant corner of the country.  I can't wait to see what autumn brings!