The fabulous colour display in the streets and countryside around Melbourne in autumn, trees are now festooned with russet-reddish leaves glowing warmly in brief bursts of autumn sun. Coloured berries have replaced the flowers, red ones on ilex and cotoneaster, rose hips burned to orange and black and dark blue buttons on juniper trees. Bright blue skies, creating patters in the arched-over pathways. Sombre grey skies announce the coming of rain which makes all things to smell more strongly, thyme and mint in the herbal garden, sodden leaves decaying in gutters and fermenting apples rotting on the grass.

We fill barrows with raked up leaves as nature prepares for her winter repose, bidding farewell with a last splash of colour leaving behind a feast of fruits and nuts in fond remembrance and a hopeful adieu.