Autumn Colours
There’s a kind of hush that starts to settle over the land as Autumn deepens, a quiet feeling of time beginning to slow. The air turns cooler, the light softens and the colours begin to shift all around us. Every leaf, every hedgerow, every field seems to glow for a moment during Autumn, before fading back into earthy tones as Winter looms.
Autumn is nature’s slow transformation, a reminder that change can be gentle, graceful and full of colour.
When we step outside and walk slowly through this season, we’re offered an invitation to relax and notice the depth of colours and how they can keep us in the moment. Rather than noticing just the bold flashes of orange and gold, see the subtler shades too, the russet browns, deeper greens and the purples and reds of distant hills.
This quiet noticing can become almost a kind of moving meditation, a way to be present without pressure, simply observing the rhythm of nature’s change.
The Story Behind The Colours
As the days shorten and the trees and plants begin to draw back the greens of summer, the chlorophyll that fed their leaves fades, revealing the pigments that were always there: yellows, reds and golds. Anthocyanins paint the crimson blush on brambles and carotenoids turn birch leaves buttery yellow. It’s a small miracle of chemistry, but also a visual poem about letting go.
The trees surrender their summer brightness, allowing what lies beneath to show through. It’s a lesson that resonates deeply in this beautiful season of transition. It’s a reminder that change can reveal hidden beauty.
Walking With Colour
While the Autumn sun is still gifting us the odd warmer, sunnier day, it’s a great time to get out and take a walk. The amazing colours are a feast for the eyes. Take a minute to notice how the colours shift in layers, rather than single tones. A hedgerow for example, isn’t just green and brown, it’s threaded with bronze, olive, ochre and shadowed plum.
Look down as much as you do up. Fallen leaves overlap in collages of fading pigment, puddles reflect the sky and branches, turning otherwise dull paths into fleeting art. Even on greyer days there’s this richness if you look closely.
A Quiet Practice
Try this simple exercise next time you walk;
Pause somewhere that catches your eye, like a cluster of trees, a patch of fallen leaves or a hedgerow glowing in the light.
Breathe deeply and take in the scene. Notice the range of colours , how they blend and how they shift from light to shadow.
Choose one colour to follow for a few minutes. Perhaps the burnished red of a leaf or the muted gold of sleeping ferns. How many other places can you see the same shade?
Reflect as you walk, what does a certain colour make you feel? What do all the colours together make you feel?
By the end you may find you’ve gathered a palette of the season in your mind, a quiet record of what the world offered you today.
The Season Of Letting Go
Autumn teaches us to see beauty in change. Sometimes its palette is fleeting, the same tree that burned gold last week may stand bare tomorrow, but that’s the part of the charm. The reminder that everything has its moment and noticing that is a small act of gratitude.
Noticing in this way roots us in the present, quietens the noise and each step becomes a way of saying ‘I’m here, now, in this season and look what it has to offer’
All we have to do is notice, if only for a little while.
