An Ode to the Equilux

Is nothing sacred?

A false Autumn - the effect of Horse Chestnut Leaf Miners

Almost two years ago, I wrote a piece called Autumn Leaves/Les feuilles mortes, musing on Eva Cassidy and her untimely early death and the turning of the world. My wife, Amanda, was still with us, but she was already then in residential care, although when I composed the piece she had just spent several very confusing days in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King’s Lynn, having possibly suffered a minor stroke.

Now, as the autumn leaves begin to fall again, it is over six months since she died. Who knows where the time goes? I may be sentimental, but why not? It’s not wrong to miss someone, even though the world keeps on turning, and there’s no going back. 

And I am.  I do....

Sunday was the Autumn Equinox, traditionally defined as the time when the plane of Earth's equator passes through the geometric centre of the Sun's disk. The sun appears to rise due east and set due west and, in theory, the day is as long as the night, though we don’t have the light switch dusks and dawns that (almost) occur on the equator. 

But now I learn that in fact we have a few days when the days are still longer than the nights due to refraction of the sun’s rays through the atmosphere, so we have to wait for the Equilux to get our full night’s sleep..... 

Is nothing sacred?

The spent flowers of the Sweet Chestnut

So, instead of equinoctial gales, are we now to expect equiluctial storms? I cannot find the word, and when I look it up I find that equinoctial storms are something of a myth anyway (pace Boris, et al). But in researching that particular word, I find myself surrounded by words I didn’t know before. 

Ouch! 

I didn’t know I suffered from Occhiolism – which apparently is a neologism for the awareness of the small scope of one's own perspective and the way it limits one's ability to fully understand the world.....

Well, that certainly helps!

Traces of a squirrel feast

Nor did I know that I may have Agnosthesia – which is the state of not knowing how you really feel about something, which forces you to sift through clues hidden in your own behaviour, as if you were some other person. 

I wish I’d never looked. 

And then there’s Oneirataxia - the inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.... 

Well, I just didn’t know there was a word for it!

Sycamore leaf showing Tarspot Fungus

And as for Kairosclerosis - the moment you realize that you're currently happy - consciously trying to savour the feeling - which prompts your intellect to identify it, pick it apart and put it in context, where it will slowly dissolve until it's little more than an aftertaste. 

Oh Lord, take me now!

Seeds of the Common Lime

But, where was I? 

Oh yes, Autumn leaves..... Amanda and I used to love Autumn in Italy. A sharpness in the light. The plumes of smoke from the chestnut groves, as the contadini cleared the ground ready for the harvest.  The cars by the morning roadside, left by city workers gleaning porcini (Boletus Edulis) from the woods to gain a week’s wages in a peaceful few hours (not to mention to augment the family tables).... Picnics with the kids playing in the aromatic airs near Lago di Vico, feasting on cassoulet and hunks of fresh bread.....

Oh yes...

Since you went away the days grow long

And soon I'll hear old winter's song

But I miss you most of all my darling

When autumn leaves start to fall

Johnny Mercer

Oh no....

Mais la vie sépare ceux qui s’aiment

Tout doucement sans faire de bruit

Et la mer efface sur la sable

Les pas des amants désunis

{But life separates those who are in love

Gently, without a sound,

And the sea erases from the sand

The footprints of parted lovers}

Jacques Prévert

All pictures taken in the last two days on my iPhone 

It's not what you see - it's how you see it.....

And I am not alone,

while my love is near me,

I know it will be so,

until it's time to go,

So come the storms of winter,

and then the birds in spring again,

I have no fear of time.

For who knows,

how my love grows?

And who knows,

where the time goes?

Sandy Denny

PS:  If you haven't yet ordered a copy of my new book about NW Norfolk, please don't miss the chance!  It will make a beautiful Christmas present....

£12 a copy (plus p&p) but all will go to charity (The National Brain Appeal and The Friends of St Mary's, Snettisham) after print costs have been met....

Just email me: richardpgibbs@aol.com

In memory of Amanda

Thanks

Richard