By: Zofia
Home in Aotearoa

Autumn Equinox

Sunset over Auckland CBD and Skytower, as seen from Bastion Point, on the eve of the Autumn Equinox 2023 🍂

My family left yesterday evening. We hung around in the airport while they queued to drop off their bags, I sat on the floor to feed O, then walked him around the departure terminal while we waited. As I type, they are still in the air, wrenched away from me back home across the globe. They arrived in Auckland towards the end of February, stayed almost a month. Now they’re heading back into a northern hemisphere Spring, while we move into Autumn.

I felt the season turning even as they left. For the past few days there has been a chill in the air. The mornings are cool, the house cold when we awake. In the park, the poplars are almost bare, the familiar (to me) scent of Autumn rising up from the carpet of leaves at their feet. Here and there are splashes of colour: a silver birch with pretty orange spangles, an ornamental maple strawberry red. Suddenly O needs a vest underneath his outfit, a woolly jumper or blanket if we go out early.

I love Autumn. For me it is inextricably bound up with la rentree des classes, the start of the new school year, with all the buzz and excitement that entailed. Growing up in the South of France, there would always be a couple of months of good weather ahead. Later, when I went off to University in the UK, the excitement was greater still, and although the stretch of good weather was significantly shorter, there would always be a handful of perfectly cool and crisp days full of life and laughter. At the start of the academic year everyone is hopeful again, full of lofty goals and good intentions, the anxiety of exams far enough away that beautiful Autumn days can be seized and enjoyed, sensible plans discarded in the pursuit of joy. These, at least, are the days that stand out in my memory.

There is a lot I want to write about, but it’s a been a busy week catching up on everything that had fallen by the wayside while my family were here. So I thought I would share a higgledy-piggledy peek into where my mind and soul are at right now, in no particular order. Sending love to you all, thanks for hanging around or checking back again after my brief hiatus! Zx

✨ Currently working on carving out time for a regular writing practice – one of my new year’s resolutions. Right now that means time to journal (handwritten thought dump), work on my writing project (still at a research / planning phase), and write blog posts.

✨ Baby learnt how to wave this week. Just woke up like hey, look what I learnt to do overnight! Has since been waving at me, K, the dog, and… the fridge!

✨ I started watching F1 again. When I was little I was such a huge fan, my brother and I would get up to watch no matter what time the race was scheduled to start. Then there was university, Med school, no time for anything. I probably haven’t followed a season consistently since 2006 – although I kept up with things sporadically for a little while after that. A few things have changed since then – although incredibly some of the same drivers are still around. So I’m enjoying trying to figure out the “new” teams, rules, etc.

✨ This year really feels like it’s flying by – so much has happened already, but also so much still to come. It’s exciting and daunting all at once.

✨ In a similar vein: I can’t believe my baby is already six months old! I wish I could keep every moment of him, he’s just the absolute best thing ever. My heart is so full.

✨ I went for my first run today since pre-pregnancy. Couch to 5k week 1 with O in the stroller! I felt so unwell and exhausted during my first and second trimesters that I had to give up a lot of exercise – which was so tough for me at the time. So this is a big deal.

✨ I like to think of (and refer to) my baby as my lil chum or pal. He truly is. So I talk to him as such, and in turn he gratifies me with a hilarious range of facial expressions and babble. It’s the best.

✨ There are so many beautiful dahlias around right now! Our gardening season of life is still very young, but one day we’ll grow them.

✨ I know it’s the age of substack and newsletters (or are they now out?), but I’ve been enjoying reading actual blogs, especially book-related, such as https://thinkaboutreading.wordpress.com/ and https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com, and NZ-based, such as https://thistlesandkiwis.org and https://lifeatno22.com – let me know if you think I’d like your blog, or any that you follow!

✨ There’s a house on our street that sometimes (every weekend) blasts music until the early hours (4am), and yes, but also, it takes me back to those long German summers nights in my twenties, and somehow feels deeply soothing, and secretly I love it.

✨ We often have a”snacky” dinner on the day we go grocery shopping. For me this week: blue cheese, strawberries and cashews. Delicious.

✨ Also delicious: K’s roast chicken dinner, which we hadn’t had since before my family visited. So nice to have such good staples to return to.

✨ My little brother got us all vintage sweaters to remember this trip by, and wearing mine this week when it got chilly made my heart happy.

✨ I’m back to yoga again after a short break when things got too busy in the last couple of weeks that my family were here. I just picked up Adriene’s March Calendar and today was Yoga for Golfers – not one that I would have randomly picked, but it hit all the right places ♥️

✨ If you’ve been waiting on a reply from me (text, WhatsApp, email, etc) – I’m working on it!