Autumn in Cora

Early autumn is the best time of the year, I’m sure I have said that before. The pretty indicators of the fall-season are around and about; freshly fell copper leaves on the ground, robins seeming to '‘re-appear’, even though they never really left. Hard, thick, rusty conkers in pear-green casings. In fact, as I stirred my morning teapot this morning, I observed a squirrel scamp past my kitchen window, clutching a fat one majestically between its deft, front paws+. It was a happy sight.

But it’s not cold yet, the slight balm of summer still carries. And when it rains, it comes in short, mad bursts. Like Gaia forgot she had downpour as an option and is trying to remember how it works. Shaking at it like an old remote. As the autumn trundles along, the rain will become more sharp and persistent, the gold leaves rendered to mulch.

I think All Hallows Eve is the turning point; the last night of the romantic period of autumn, before the cold, unrelenting Northern winter creeps in. Indeed, in classic Gothic fiction, this is the bit, mid-September, when the protagonist finally concedes to yearning for a lost love. November is the bit when they discover said lost love has long-since died of tuberculous, has married a tedious psychopath or been imprisoned in an asylum; perhaps for doing too much yearning. Thats the general idea.

In the most recent edition of the radio programme Room 101, comic actor Stephen Mangan tried to have autumn consigned to the dustbin of history; I think he must have meant November. November is a bit rubbish. It used to at least have Guy Fawkes night, but now that we don’t really do that anymore, I can’t see the function of November. The ‘pretend’ bit of autumn that is just winter in disguise. It’s best to get rid of it altogether and skip on through to Christmas. I have plenty of time to soak fruit cake in rum or brandy in Sept/Oct and other such ‘harvesting’ activities (any chutney making fans out there?)

If your birthday is in November and that is important to you (because you collect Scalextric sets or whathaveyou) we can always move it, it’s no problem. It will however mean we’ll start hearing bangers like Last Christmas in department stores in about August instead of…well, any day now. But thats tolerable, right? We’ve got this far.

Shifting the calendar around aside, I’ve been doing some shopping in these last week. I’m a perma-student and I’m about to do a part-time Masters degree, and took pleasure in buying some new back-to-school bits. Important stuff. A matching black cat pencil case, tote bag and coffee mug. Black cats are my spirit animal. Calligraphy pens. A back-to-school dog-tooth blazer, a back-to-school beret, back-to-school roll up tobacco.++ Back-to-school copies of The Socialist Worker, vinyl copies of classic Belle and Sebastian albums and a poster of A Clockwork Orange.

In other news, I have been meaning to travel more recently, I managed to get to London a fair bit this summer but its looking hard this autumn, with study and with one or two other things that have cropped up. I did spend some time furiously chewing over my calendar to see how I could juggle stuff, but no dice. So, I may have a settled autumn in Leeds, York and Harrogate until Christmas. I will still be happy to keep diary time free to meet lovely clients for companion dates and dominatrix sessions, though, as ever, a day or two’s notice is always a good shout.

Anyway, I thought I might start adding some appropriate visuals to my Scribbings. I had a lovely overnight this past weekend in cute Ilkley in West Yorkshire; we stayed in the Craigsland hotel with its beautifully imposing Victorian facade, had a morning walk down to the river (apparently I can smell bodies of water from a small distance; is that normal?) and an elegant breakfast at Betty’s tearooms, a Yorkshire institution! I had Darjeeling tea in a silverware set, and kedgeree. I also got treated (among some other lovely things) to this leatherbound back-to-school Aspinal jotter with my initials CL embossed. I felt very spoiled! Enjoy the reflective autumn, all.

KISSES, CORA LEIGH

UK INDEPENDENT ESCORT, DOMINATRIX & COMPANION

+Matron!

++I don’t smoke anymore but I want to be prepared.