The Kingdom of Autumn
An introduction to walkers’ favourite season of all.
TO ORDINARY FOLK, AUTUMN’S a time of curtains swishing shut and the heating set to a steady bake. A time for box-set bingeing, comfort eating and cuddles with the cat. It’s like that for walkers too of course, only when they flomp on the sofa it’s starry-eyed with the season rather than ruing the nights drawing in and resignedly planning Christmas. Because the days sweeten as they shorten, the cold air holds up a magnifying glass to simple pleasures, and the slanted sunshine casts everything in its most flattering, fleeting light. Measured by quantity of time, there’s less to an autumn day. But you don’t value a painting on the size of its frame, or a tune on the number of notes. To properly savour this season, you must get in and amongst it; its crunches, musky scents, stillnesses and shafts of amber light shot through with illuminated breath. More than any other this is a season best-served on foot; you get the keys to the kingdom the moment you pull on your boots.