September can feel like an in between kind of month. In early September, it’s usually like summer still. The new school term often seems to coincide with a heat wave, which is especially annoying if the weather during the summer holidays wasn’t very good! But once the schools are back, Christmas things start appearing in the shops. We can start to feel that we ought to be thinking about Christmas, even if we don’t really want to because the days are still warmish and sunny.
The back to school feeling is hard to shake off, even if your own school days were so long ago the memories are misty round the edges, and even if your children’s school days are behind them and your life isn’t ruled by school terms. So as well wanting to enjoy the end of summer while being bombarded with reminders of winter, there’s also a shiny shoes, new pencil case kind of feeling as well.
All of this gives September its own kind of oddness.
Wanting to Enjoy What’s Left of Summer
This year in Norfolk, summer has not been great. It was very late getting started, cold and wet even in July, then a little bit of nice weather and now it’s chilly again.
Even years like this year, there are things you can do to make the most of what it left of the summer.
Keep on wearing your summer clothes. Mine have had such a short airing this year, I’m not ready to put them away just yet! If it’s cold, you can wear your favourites with a cardi and leggings, and pop a coat on if you need to when you go out.
Get outside as much as you can. It’s worth remembering that the mornings are sometimes chilly, but the afternoons are often warmer.
Hang your washing outside to dry. Much as I like the idea of hanging the washing out all year round, it gets to a point where thicker things like trackie bottoms and jeans just won’t get dry. In September, when it’s not raining, there’s usually enough warmth and the days are still long enough to get it dry if you hang it out in the morning.
Sit out in the garden if you have one, perhaps with a blanket and a hot drink.
Go blackberry picking. They grow everywhere so it doesn’t matter if you live in a town or a city rather than the country. There will probably be blackberries growing somewhere!
Make jam. You could use the blackberries you picked! Rowan jelly is nice too. It tastes like posh marmalade, sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste. Then you’ll be able to spread a little bit of summer on some toast or a crumpet even after summer is over.
Feeling an Obligation to Start Getting Ready For Christmas
It can feel very weird thinking about Christmas when it still feels like summer.
Christmas is still some way off, and it’s only because things start appearing in the shops that lots of us even think about it at all.
Although there is an argument for being ready and not leaving everything to the last minute, if we focus too much of our attention on what is looming, we end up missing out on what is there in front of us now.
Buying autumn decorations and things for Christmas takes us away from the last days of summer and the beauty of early autumn. We’re thinking about chilly days, dark evenings, possibly even snow. It seems so far away from the golden sunshine on leaves that are still green.
The problem is that we are not even free to enjoy whatever it is when it does finally arrive. The marketing people will be ready to foist the next thing on us, along with the fear that if we don’t buy food that’s going to go out of date and plastic tat, that we will somehow be missing out.
That feeling of being pulled two ways can be difficult to deal with. So if you feel that you perhaps need to start thinking about Christmas without it taking over, here are some suggestions.
Decide what you will be doing and where. If decisions need to be made about visits and family obligations, and where you will be spending Christmas, whether at home or elsewhere, getting it sorted out early can be a good idea. This is especially true if not knowing what you’ll be doing makes you feel stressed. Things can always be rearranged if necessary, but knowing what you are doing can feel like quite a big thing has been sorted out, and it won’t take too much of your attention away from the September sunshine.
Have a look at your craft bits and pieces. If you are likely to be making things, you could have a quick look at what you have already and make a list of what you might need. Taking a photo of your list with your phone, or making the list on your phone is a good idea if you know you won’t remember where you put it when the time comes!
If Christmas tends to catch you unawares and you find yourself rushing, put some dates in your diary, on the calendar, or set reminders on your phone. This could include getting or making an Advent candle, buying and writing Christmas cards, and checking the tree lights to make sure they still work.
The Back-to-School, Shiny Shoes and New Pencil Case Feeling
Even if your own school days are far behind you, your children are grown up, and you don’t work in education, it’s hard to escape the feelings that a new school year can bring. You might have an overwhelming to buy new stationery, try a new routine or learn something new.
This can sometimes go the way of New Year’s resolutions. We start off cheerfully with good intentions to change things, learn a skill, or get organised, but within a few weeks we either crash and burn or completely forget whatever it is we had resolved to do. And instead of being something that was going to make our lives better, it adds to the shame bundle that so many of us are carrying around.
I actually think it’s ok if things don’t last. There’s a time for everything, and September, can be a time to make new and start afresh.
Try a new routine. It might be making time for a walk, or doing the washing up straight after breakfast, or having a good tidy up after dinner to keep the chaos at bay. Some things might stick, others probably won’t. Even if it most of it falls by the wayside, you might find in a few months that you still make a point of doing the washing up after breakfast, or that your front room is still fairly tidy because you decided to have a good go at it every Saturday.
Get new stationery. Buying things and not using them straight away is another thing that can make us feel bad. But you never know when there might be a gloomy day in February when you find a notebook you bought in September and realise that it’s just what you need. Or you need to write some lists, or remind yourself to do things, and you remember the post its you bought but didn’t use.
Learn to do something new. It’s alright to stop before you become an expert! Getting a bit better is fine. You can always come back to it later if you want to.
Start a new project or dig out an old one. Projects are sometimes seasonal. I find that making blankets and other woolly things appeals much less in the summer. You might have something you were working on last winter (or even a few winters ago!) that appeals again. Or you might want to start something new.
Knowing that a new thing might become another unfinished project can make us feel guilty and ashamed before we have even started. But the thing to remember is that an unfinished project is something we haven’t finished yet! It’s not always the right time to finish things. Sometimes it’s the time to start, and the time to finish with will come along later.
Have a sort out of your freezer, then cook or bake things to put in it. I remember doing this one year when my boys were all still little, and we had enough cake to last us until Christmas! Because it is a one off kind of thing, it doesn’t bring with it any bad feelings of not sticking to something, or seeing it through to the end, and you’ll reap the benefits for several weeks afterwards.
I’d love to know what you think! You can leave a comment below, or on Facebook or Instagram.
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