We're already into Autumn and the seasons have gently changed direction, bringing about warmer fashions, lower temperatures, and shorter daylight hours. The leaves know it's time to change colour, late-season fruits are ripening, birds getting ready to fly south and hibernating animals are feeding heartily for the long sleep ahead.
We vary our eating habits. When I lived in Hong Kong, the restaurants changed their menu's to offer steamed hairy crab with ginger and Chinese vinegar, double-boiled soups, claypot chicken or pork and dishes containing chestnuts, pumpkin, lotus root, lily bulbs, persimmon and pomelo, often cooked with vegetables and seafoods.
So if you're planning to eat at your local Chinese Restaurant soon, you'll know what to talk with them about.
We were once part of that design. Then we invented central heating, supermarkets and the 24-hour day and promptly forgot about the seasonal changes. We now live so far outside nature’s rhythms.
The ancients understood this rather better. They saw the turning of each season as a natural instruction: shed what no longer serves you, cleanse the system, and make room for what comes next.
Graeme Dinnen
graemedinnen.com
