Getting Ready for Autumn

Last December I started a series of post about preparing for the coming seasons, the first post was Getting Ready for Winter. I followed that up with Getting Ready for Spring and Getting Ready for Summer, so now here is a post on getting ready for autumn, to complete the seasonal circle. :)

Note: If  spring is coming up where you are check out the spring post: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/03/getting-ready-for-spring.html


After what has felt like an especially long, hot summer, the weather has cooled down and autumn is coming. We seem to have had some weird weather in the UK this year, with snow storms in March and more snow than usual here in Sussex. Then in April we had hotter weather than usual for spring, and then a hot summer. I did enjoy the hotter weather, although I struggled a bit to adjust to the heat. In the past couple of weeks or so it's cooled down and now it's feeling more like autumn. The light shifts towards the end of August, mellows, and also now the shorter days (since Litha/the Summer Solstice they shorten by about a minute every 3 days and about 3 mins a day by Madron aka the Autumn Equinox) are becoming a bit more noticeable, with sunset before 8pm instead of after 9 earlier in the summer.

It has actually warmed up these past couple of days and I'm planning to go to the beach tomorrow to make the most of the weather, before summer is officially over! But I'm also concentrating on moving into autumn.

As with the other seasons, there are two "official" starts to autumn- meteorological autumn which is 1st September, and astronomical autumn which is around 22nd September when the Autumn Equinox (Madron/Mabon) is. This year Madron is 23rd Sept. For more information read this post: https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2026/when-does-autumn-start

Late Summer

Last month I shared some summer photos. You can see the post here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/07/summer-photos.html

Now we're coming to the end of summer. Almost a year ago I did an End of Summer post and it seems strange that we're already in mid-late August again. Doesn't seem that long since spring! Back in April we had some unusually hot weather, then it returned to more normal temperatures for the time of year. In July and earlier this month we had a heatwave and it was said to be the hottest summer for several years. It's cooled down now but but may heat up again at the end of the month.

Here are a few more pictures I've taken this summer:

Hove Park- July '18.

Lammas 2018

For Lammas last Wednesday I celebrated by making Cornish pasties and gingerbread. As I mentioned in my Celebrating Lammas post, I usually bake for this sabbat. I normally make gingerbread but I don't think I'd made a Cornish pasty (or rather Cornish style pasty since I'm not from Cornwall!), for it since 2014. The recipe is from Kate West's The Real Witches' Kitchen. I couldn't post the full recipe online for legal reasons, but linked to similar recipes in this post: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2014/08/lammas.html

I had my pasty for lunch with some Bulmers cider. Here's a pic:

Celebrating Lammas

 

Lammas, one of my favourite sabbats (along with Samhain) is coming up. It's this Wednesday 1st August (although some may celebrate it on 31st July, or start their celebrations from sunset on the 31st). Last year I did a post about Lammas celebration ideas which you can read here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/07/lammas-celebration-ideas.html

This year I'll write some more about preparing for and celebrating Lammas. :)

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, Imbolg/Imbolc is coming up and you might like this post: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/01/imbolg-celebration-ideas.html


Update 1/8/23: Some of the links below are gone or not currently loading. I'll update this with some new ones when I can. :)

Lammas (also known as Lughnasadh) is harvest time, the first of the 3 harvest festivals (the others are Madron/Mabon and Samhain). The God will be sacrificed for the land and then later reborn. The Goddess has now become the Mother and is pregnant with the new God, who she will give birth to at Yule aka the Winter Solstice. You can read more here: https://whisperingworlds.com/wiccan/lammas.php

Here are a couple more links about Lammas:

https://www.theseasonalsoul.com/lammas-meaning/

https://joannahennon.com/how-to-celebrate-lammas/

Summer Photos

Summer is my favourite season and here in the UK we've been having one of the hottest summers for years. Temperatures have been around 29 to 34 Celsius (I think that's about 84 to 93F) in some places which is hot for the UK. I know that in some places it goes up to 40C but I suppose you're used to it if it's your regular weather! (I used to live in Fiji as a child and I suppose I was just used to it.) I've been enjoying the weather, although I do have to adjust to the heat!

Back in April I shared some spring photos (we had some unusually hot weather for a bit then, which made it seem more like early summer), so thought it would be good to share some summer ones today. :)

First of all here are a few pics from Worthing Beach:

Worthing Beach

Litha 2018

It was Litha aka the Summer Solstice/Midsummer last Thursday and I celebrated by making lemonade and salad. As I mentioned in my Celebrating Litha + Summer post, I made some tomato and onion salad, a recipe from The Kitchen Witch book by Soraya. It has to chill in the fridge for at least an hour, but I made it the night before because I had a busy day. I had some of the salad with avocado on toast and bacon. Here's a picture:

I made more than this, just had a bit with lunch.

Celebrating Litha + Summer

It's Litha, also known as Midsummer/the Summer Solstice this upcoming week (Thursday 21st June) and so I'm doing a new post on celebration ideas. I first did one last year which you can read here (also a baking post): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/06/baking-no-yeast-dinner-rolls-and.html

Like I did with my Celebrating Oestara + Spring post back in March, I'm combining ideas for Litha and celebrating summer in general. :)

Note: For those in the Southern Hemisphere winter is starting and Yule aka Midwinter/the Winter Solstice is coming up. You might enjoy this post: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2017/12/yule-celebration-ideas.html

At the beginning of the month I wrote a post on getting ready for summer which you can see here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2018/06/getting-ready-for-summer_3.html

As I mentioned there, the Summer Solstice is the official start of summer (around 20th June) but the meteorological start is 1st June. It definitely feels like summer has already started, since we've had some nice, hotter weather. (Although not so much today!).