Despite some hot weather recently, the approach of autumn is inexorable. Gone will be the "long still-lengthening days" (Rosetti) and soon, the slow closing-in that comes with seasonal change. I love autumn and often wonder why, because it inevitably sets off a kind of melancholy in me.

Living in Japan didn't help this at all, for even the cherry blossoms in the springtime had their built-in decay time, that moment when the petals begin to brown and the leaves appear. A flash and they're gone. The Japanese see this as a symbol of the transience of all things. It seems to be that spring would better be placed alongside autumn as a way of contrasting growth and decline. Maybe summer is squeezed in between to save us all the angst that might result.