Beginnings!

Some of you will know me already. Some of you won’t. And vice versa! I’ve been planning to do this for quite a long time, now, and so it’s time to quit the procrastination and get on with it. Wish me well and I look forward to this new adventure!

I come from a tradition of new school years starting in September. There’s a certain feel in the air that whispers autumn and freshness and makes me feel I should start something new when it comes round, even though it’s nearly 30 years since my schooldays finished. But they were influential and they linger – do you ever dream of your timetable? I do, and I’m always missing a class or in a wrong classroom…

Today is no exception, even though we are not quite into September, yet. The air is crisp but warm, it’s sunny and golden but there are some yellow leaves on the plum tree outside my window and another bush has vivid red berries on it already. This morning I swept up the first viburnum leaves that had begun to invade the terrace. If I stand near a linden tree, I could be 8 years old and waiting for my dad to finish teaching and take me home from school again, the scent drifting down over me as I sit between the confined roots in the gravel and pore over my new school books or try to get to grips with my new ink pen (which I promptly ruined by putting the spare cartridge in backwards, whereupon it got stuck and the pen was only fit for the bin).

On another September day it was the fine perfume of Alexandra, a famous Cedar of Lebanon, that infused the air around the Greek theatre where we gathered for the speeches that started the year off. Summer tans, new haircuts, fancy new clothes and the excitement of seeing everyone again after 8 or 9 weeks of summer holiday and the sheer curiosity of our new timetables, having new teachers, meeting new students, settling in new buildings, using new pens and crayons, a whole new year.

No wonder I consider September the month of new beginnings!