The Sussex lanes were very lovely in the autumn. I started going for long lone country walks among the spendthrift gold and glory of the year-end, giving myself up to the earth-scents and the sky-winds and all the magic of the countryside which is ordained for the healing of the soul. – Monica Baldwin, I Leap Over the Wall: Contrasts and Impressions After Twenty-Eig

Around and around the house the leaves fall thick—but never fast, for they come circling down with a dead lightness that is sombre and slow. Let the gardener sweep and sweep the turf as he will, and press the leaves into full barrows, and wheel them off, still they lie ankle-deep. – Charles Dickens, Bleak House

At the close of a long hot summer, the appearance of the pumpkin heralds the welcome arrival of autumn. – Kari Spencer, www.themicrofarmproject.com